Anne Taylor

fire

and like a fire you couldn’t touch me without becoming something you weren’t and I couldn’t touch you without getting burned

so often I find myself pouring over pictures of happy faces overhearing light conversations watching casual giggles in the evening and think is it real are you smiling on the inside or are you like the rest of us wandering with a face that isn’t ours painting on what we need to dancing when theContinue reading “screens”

didn’t you know

didn’t you know you felt like a fireplace in the winter your cracks and hisses told me what I needed to hear you brought warmth to my soul you reflected in my eyes the way I suppose something is supposed to you were everything a fire needed to be and like a fire I couldn’tContinue reading “didn’t you know”

11/24/18

I am unavoidably who I am I am a wanting warrior and a retreating renegade I let sorry sleep in my throat and yes hide in my coat pocket I am a gypsy without a caravan an eagle without wings and a star without a galaxy I am lost in a world that is justContinue reading “11/24/18”

weather

the rain can be so calming refreshing cathartic but I am a thunderstorm without any rain pent up and rumbling crying for somewhere to go to run to hide to be and work myself out but a thunderstorm without any rain is a rainstorm without any rainbow

failure

failure feels like fake smiles a hollow stomach and a drooping soul though it’s only a bruise I see a tattoo my mirror shows a scarlet F stamped across my face dripping down my cheeks and into my mouth so everything I say is tinted red how dare I believe my only risk was flyingContinue reading “failure”

a man for carrie

Carrie stood in front of the police station with her hands in her pockets, sweating slightly in the Carolina sun but trying to ignore it because she liked the jacket she was wearing and it brought out her eyes or at least she thought that was something the young pretty girls would say about theirContinue reading “a man for carrie”

dissociation

what do you do when you don’t want to die but you don’t always want to live when life is beautiful enough to keep you focused hope is strong enough to pull you up and love is sweet enough to stay on your tongue but nothing is loud enough to drown out your thoughts

mixed signals

anxiety suffocates me under my own thoughts then tells me I need to breathe more

Chapter 1 of What It Takes to Lose

Here is the first chapter of my novel, What It Takes to Lose. It’s been edited a million times and still needs to be edited about a million more. But I finally like it enough to start sharing it a little- hopefully one day it’ll be in a physical book. Chapter 1 Ana is neverContinue reading “Chapter 1 of What It Takes to Lose”