From the top deck of the bus & Pub Sessions

Poetry, Emily A. Taylor

From the top deck of the bus

our intersection looks more complicated

somehow than two webbed roads paved

irrevocably I miss ignorance

or the all-enduring night in your eyes

taking the long way home how

you sleep like you’re bracing

for impact

arms bent beneath you curled

away from the clearing sun

in all its southbound yellow

from this vantage I know

the day caught us at the wrong time

and we missed the red light

for laughing

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Pub Sessions

for Pat

how quickly I could fill my life with this unsilence

—and littered conversations—like the one where we

recounted the days our mothers left—and my hair—

always pin-straight—let loose—a single curl—

I don’t have to say—you already know—

——the antithesis of nothing—is a ransacked packet

of crisps—torn and bowtied back together—like a

poundland centrepiece—that graces the waxed table

separating us—

so solitude is to be alone—well—I enjoy the pub

visits—en route to our respective homes—Guinness

settling into a long-time tenderness—the wait for its

shoddy head to appear————and somewhere it is

bone-raining—but not at this place—where the only

weather is a bartender—letting rip another glass—

if I believed in a God—I would pour him a pint—

for the many——strangers who’ve decided—you’re

alright—————————maybe you are Him—

both somewhat jaded—and not balding—unquietly

there—and willing to listen—

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Emily A. Taylor (she/her) is a writer based in London. She is the founder of the Queer Poetry Collective and The Poetry Society's Islington Stanza. Her work has been published in Propel, Ink Sweat & Tears, t'ART, Seaford Review, The Madrigal, Anthropocene, and Metachrosis Literary Magazine. She is pursuing her MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths. You can find her on Instagram (@emraylot) or Bluesky (emwrote.bsky.social).