Photography © Glenn Bowie

 

paths to nowhere

where do all the whores come from
try to imagine them
as little girls
in pretty dresses
each was someone’s daughter once
each was once a mother’s child.
and you will get stone drunk one evening
if you try to envision
what must have transpired
between then and now

what did the homeless
enjoy doing
after sunday school
when they were young boys
and the sun was shining bright
do the memories linger
i wonder
now that the nights have become filled
with intolerable pain
and death has become
nothing more
than a goal to strive for
do any of the roominghouses
retain the sights and sounds
of the dregs of humanity
that wasted away within
their peeling and cracked walls
on marshmallowy urine-stained mattresses
among the roaches and spiders
the beer and the blood
the moans and the silence

her pale white arms
once lilywhite and untouched
despondent needle tracks running
in criss-cross patterns
his liver a purple balloon
bulging sadly like a waiting land mine
her cunt spread wide
pried open night after night
his back bent under the withering strain
of an unnatural old age

the globe spins we’re all dizzy
it winds us all down
differently

 

Scott Taylor is 48 years old, and hails from Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a writer and a musician, and an avid world traveler.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.