Taylor Franson-Thiel
Taylor Franson-Thiel is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominated poet from Utah, now based in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Master’s in creative writing from USU and is pursuing an MFA at George Mason University. Her debut collection, Bone Valley Hymnal, is forthcoming in 2025 from ELJ Editions. She is an editorial reader for Poetry Daily, the Assistant Poetry Editor for phoebe and the EIC of BRAWL. She can be found on Twitter @TaylorFranson and at taylorfranson-thiel.com.
Spondylolisthesis
He cannot trust
his spine.
It’s rotting hollyhock column
deteriorating
petals between his L5 and S1.
The doctor
told us it’s likely congenital—he
was born with
the decay already inside.
In our bed
he asks me do you hate your life?
says I do
sometimes. In a body
that will
not heal. I want to cover him
in fertilizer
grow him anew. Give him
the stem
from my own back like a good wife
could. He is
wilting to dust in my hands.
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Image by Tsunami Green from Unsplash
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