Kristofer Collins: Vigil

for William Taylor, Jr.

.

On her third cigarette, alone and no one here

has the heart to say put it out so we drink

alone in our own ways and hook theses wishes

to the white tails of her breath and watch

Golden State move the ball without pause

but not really watching, but slowly and quietly each

one here fits new locks on the doors we’re closing

ourselves behind. Later I’ll slip Chopin’s

Nocturnes on the turntable and listen to these

other locks sliding open with each little touch.

Later still I’ll dream of those four o’clock winds

crashing my body as the late sun wavered

querulously over San Francisco and I’ll tell

myself I loved there, I was loving and loved

and even later still I will see this reflection

only slightly recognizable as mine ghosting the window

as little pink fingers of morning grip the edge

of the East End and I’ll know all at once 

the many lies I’ve been telling myself since then. 

---

Kristofer Collins is the longtime Books Editor for Pittsburgh Magazine. He is the co-curator of The Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series. His latest book The River Is Another Kind of Prayer: New & Selected Poems was published in 2019 by Kung Fu Treachery Press. His latest project is The Pittsburgh Book Review. He lives in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Stanton Heights with his wife and son.