Dare Williams
Image by Wojcieck Marciniak on Pexels
A 2019 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, Dare Williams (he/they) is a Queer HIV-positive poet, artist, rooted in Southern California. He has received support for his work from John Ashbury Home School, The Frost Place, Breadloaf and Tin House. He was the co-curator of the West Hollywood Literature Festival 2021. Dare’s poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best American Poets 2021. His work has been anthologized in Redshift 5 by Arroyo Secco Press and is featured in THRUSH, The Shore, Exposition Review, Night Heron Barks, Cultural Weekly, Altadena Review and elsewhere. He is at work on his debut poetry collection. Follow him on Twitter/IG @Dare_Williams13 and www.darewilliams.com
A Painting, A Wonder
In my life
I’d like to experience fireflies—
Their swollen rush
inside twilight’s last call.
You got all tangled up so
you painted one
on a little rock left of center,
a holy voyeur.
When I finally see them, I want to be changed.
To be that person experiencing
wonder alone and speechless,
knowing they will leave before I truly understand.
Darling, I expect too much
like just because something is rendered,
it’s forever, that it won’t get washed
out in all that white.
When I love something, I tear it.
I don’t know what else to do.
Most things just need light and time
Most things aren’t you and I
and what we’ve said to each other,
how we flicker away the moment we taste it.
©2021 West Trade Review
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