Side of Grits

SLOW MOTION


Swimming in These Stolen Moments


That precious span
between the darkness
and the dawn

is the holiest of times,

when the night and all the fear it brings
gives way

to the slow and gentle light of morning,

not yet strong enough
to illuminate the horrors
of the coming day.

It is the softest of times,

and I am up
with what's left of my wine,

swaying to some old song,

drinking in the feeling of it,

swimming in these stolen moments
until the sun rises to once more make
me ashamed.

William Taylor Jr. lives in San Francisco with his wife and a cat named Trouble. His work has been widely published in the independent press and across the internet in such publications as Poesy, Anthills and The New York Quarterly. The Hunger Season, a book of new poems, is due from sunnyoutside press in Spring 2009.

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