Taylor Byas
1. THE DISPATCHExcerpt from Water as Villain Origin Story
1.
Would you believe they blamed the river? For its honesty, the way it forages for anything’s likeness. Snips each season’s foliage from the trees, suspends the leaves in its wet resin. When I say they, I mean the gods. When I say the gods, I am refusing to trouble the waters with my learning. History tells us a German chemist discovered the modern-day mirror, silvered glass like a rotted tooth. History traces back to poorer models of copper and bronze, but does not find its way back to pre-tongue science, back to water. What I’m getting at is myth and history are manmade, both created to explain away their sins.
2.
The other day a man suggested rain was a myth, out in the open. As we waited at the curb for an Uber, the sky grumbled like a father trucked from slumber. Somewhere, a small fissure spidered out to a full split—the nocturnal water broke. In the storm, he lifted his palm, jettyed his arm from the body’s marsh. Asked why can’t I hold it?, willing gravity to soften with sympathy. I have to tell you that this was a date and I didn’t call him back. I have to tell you that it was not irrationality that had him cupping the air, but envy, and this brings me back to softening. The state of things. The crescent of his hand, flexed into a gourd. Water, going from vapor to liquid to looking glass. Tucked into the chemistry of it, there is a joke about men softening and hardening, I swear.
2. BUREAU INVENTORYCarmex - I lick my lips a lot while in deep thought, this is a necessity.
LED lamp - I change the light to match my mood, and it works wonders!
Blue light glasses - My eyes have been thanking me ever since I purchased these.
Rack of books - No surprise here!
A holiday Panera coffee cup full of pens - I have to keep the holiday cheer near at all times!
A tape measure - I measure things under immense stress...I will not take further questions.
3. BIOGRAPHYTaylor Byas is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the 1st place winner of the 2020 Poetry Super Highway, the 2020 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets Contests, and the 2021 Adrienne Rich Poetry Prize. She is the author of the chapbook Bloodwarm from Variant Lit; Shutter, forthcoming from Madhouse Press; and her debut full-length, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, forthcoming from Soft Skull Press in Spring of 2023. She is represented by Rena Rossner of the Deborah Harris Agency.