Portside

How We Win

By William Taylor Jr.

The trick of it all
is simply finding a reason
to keep on

in spite of this bastard world

while not thinking too hard
about the eventual destination
of things.

I used to sneer at those who
cheered at television screens

for victories not their own,
but now I understand
that that's as good as anything

if it makes you forget
the other stuff
for a while.

Me, I drink
and read too many books

but I think even that's
more honest than god.

And then there's you in your
sleeveless cotton dress

pressed up against me as we drink
beer on an empty afternoon,

the feel
and the smell of you

the way your flesh moves when you laugh,

it makes all the ugliness of the day dissolve
into something softer

and that's how we win.

William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. His work has been published widely in journals across the globe, including The New York Quarterly, The Chiron Review, and Catamaran Literary Reader. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, and a collection of short fiction. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and was a recipient of the 2013 Kathy Acker Award. To Break the Heart of the Sun is his latest collection of poetry. 
https://www.amazon.com/William-Taylor-Jr/e/B00PRS8XAY