Ashley Taylor: Untitled Fear of Intimacy
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
UNTITLED FEAR OF INTIMACY
She will first appear as a cup
overflowing, light
via spangled glass.
I am trying
to discuss the Theory
of Entanglement.
Like that scene in The Fly,
reaching through fusion--
more human than I am alone.
Primal. Howling at the slightest
crest of moon.
She will reappear as the tiny sliver
fine-tooth legs of a hissing cockroach,
tracing constellations along lifelines.
I wonder if she smells the wood rot.
Air stills from the belly,
and she tells me: It’s war time
all the time. I know
she means Me vs. me, so I curl
my fingers around her body.
Knotted wings and matted feathers
ooze from the edges of a broken fingernail.
Ashley Taylor [she/her] is a non-binary poet and MFA candidate at Spalding University’s School of Professional and Creative Writing. She curates, promotes, and designs inclusive programming of creative writing and performing arts workshops. She earned an MA in English from the University of Louisville, where she served as graduate editor of Miracle Monocle, writing instructor of college composition and intro to creative writing, and facilitator of UofL’s LGBTQ Creative Writing Group. She is the founder of the Louisville reading series River City Revue, the author of The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (Damaged Goods Press, 2019), and a teacher at the Jewish Community Center in Louisville KY. www.ashleytaylorpoet.com
