So Much is Burning

I more or less can't bear poetry. I love that it exists, and sometimes if i have like a surplus of energy it's allright to read, but it's pretty much never allright to listen to. Unless it's Bill Taylor. Bill's poems get a lot of praise, so i'm not going to replicate that praise except to say that it's all justified and more. He's hands-down my favorite poet.

So Much is Burning is a forty-four page book of poems and photographs by Bill mostly on the topic of living in San Francisco's gritty Tenderknob district. They're all excellent. Most of them are depressing.

At the Corner

It is mid afternoon
and I am already tired of the day
just another thing wasted
another sad mistake
and at the corner of Geary
and Leavenworth
the sky is a perfect blue
above the bus stop
where the strung out
red-haired prostitute waits
her crazed eyes almost
but not quite
beautiful.