after Man in Blue I, Francis Bacon, 1954
Taylor Brunson

imagine dark      widens

     like a film     in the mouth

            of the room / there is nothing

          to be said         of sorrow or

     loneliness / consecrated absence

of all       that must be gone

without / knowing        how high

      the cost and who           is tasked

             with paying / this is why I know

              what I am           impoverished

       of any        offering to be made

pleasured in paying up / again

o again       admitted fault / I know

          all I have              taught you to do

                  to others / what dues they are yet

                  to face were always          mine

          tell them            to hold my place

at the             table / I mean to

make good on all                 I owe

Taylor Brunson is a poet whose work has been featured in perhappened, Moist Poetry Journal, and The Ex-Puritan. She serves as an assistant poetry editor for Four Way Review and an assistant nonfiction and poetry editor for Nashville Review. Taylor can be found on Twitter, @taylor_thefox.