Our Blood by William Taylor Jr.

And if the beautiful things
that fall from your lips
are only beautiful

for as long as it takes
them to fall from your lips,

that's still more
than was promised.

It's early yet,
the drinks are pretty,

and there's some sexy doom
spilling from the juke.

Our blood,
it  remembers how to sing.

And if we're only beautiful
for as long as it takes
the bartender to see fit
to shut us down,

that's still more
than the nameless dead
clutch in their sad
forgotten hands.

William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. His work has been published widely in journals across the globe, including Rattle, The New York Quarterly, The American Journal of Poetry, and The Chiron Review. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, and a collection of short fiction. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and was a recipient of the 2013 Kathy Acker Award. To Break the Heart of the Sun is his latest collection of poetry.