Taylor Ryan Rivers

Cardboard Freestyle

With a head full of air mouth full of flowers the light of my life has gone out/ on the town dancing with a cardboard cutout of Timothée Chalamet I’ll drive the 383 down I-5 to keep her/ wealthy with the 9 gold coins gambled off the homies how are we going to make a home/ you the flood and I’m the plug neither of us new to this shit/ but neither of us knew it would end like this you weeping because I borrowed your keys/ and keep hitting the slim street corners you wonder if I’ll make it down/ I wonder if cardboard Timothée reads poetry how you read it/ does he look for words between words what if/ I told you this is not an ode but an elegy to us would you believe me/ I wouldn’t/ instead I’d fumble with the coins in my coat pocket and count the yellow lines painted on the pavement heading to an altercation/ with a blown out lover and her recyclable boyfriend.

Taylor Ryan Rivers (he/him) has a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Southern California. He recently completed a nationwide acting tour and returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to be a part of their theatre scene. Some of his works can be found in the Gyroscope Review and Palaver Arts Magazine. Instagram: @riverstaylor08