PJ Taylor
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Rope Swing
Fourth in line, feet bare
and stamping hard on exposed
tree root, I study the whoops, the dip
of groaning branch, the tangle
of limbs, and splash.
Tipping like blades of grass
in wind, we press forward—
eager as one by one the drenched
mess of us emerges. And then it’s me.
My turn to soar, to whoop and groan,
my cheek kissed by cord.
My rough thrust out to seek
and find the water’s sweet spot,
where the slap of wet doesn’t hurt;
where lake flesh peels away
like a grape stripped of its skin.
Originally from Phoenix, P. J. Taylor earned her B.A. in English Literature from Arizona State University before moving to San Francisco eleven years ago where she has since put down permanent roots. She met her husband, a Brit who crossed the "pond" to work in Silicon Valley, through match.com in '97 and they were married three years ago at the turn of the Millenium.
She quit her daytime job, much to her husband's chagrin, a few years back and has been writing full-time ever since. Primarily a poet, she just completed her first year of submitting her work. The results: 14 poems were, or will be, published in 7 journals, both on and off-line. Her greatest achievement and thrill this past year was receiving The Muses Award from The DMQ Review, an online journal, which also nominated her poem for a Pushcart Prize. She also takes time out now and then to write short-shorts and to type a few pages of a novel that grew out of her first-ever short story.
