Dare Williams

Pulasky County

My shadow wakes from the depression bed thirsty from guilt.
They tried to sell me god, but I didn’t have the money.
I was hopeful gliding in and out unpressured.
I was a thief made stronger by the sirens of this city.
I wasn’t just the water; I was the rain, torrential and constant.
I’m an empty field glazed over like a newly purchased gun.
I’m a yellow porch light calling moths to its glow.
I’m desperate in this motel room, waiting for the phone to ring.
All I have on me are these memories of you,
one where you are licking a stolen knife,
the sting of metal, a song on your lips.
Or, how about this one: you holding on as long as you could.
My name resting in your mouth soft as a bulb, hard to pronounce.

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A 2019 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, Dare Williams, is a Queer HIV-positive poet-artist, rooted in Southern California. He has received fellowships from John Ashbury Home School and The Frost Place. He is a co-producer of the reading series Word of Mouth which raises money for communities facing food and nutrition inequities. Dare’s poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a two-time finalist for Blood Orange Review’s contest. His work has been anthologized in Redshift 5 by Arroyo Secco press and is featured in Cultural Weekly, Bending Genres, THRUSH, Exposition Review and is forthcoming in Limp Wrist and elsewhere.