HEARD / WORD is a new audio series highlighting compelling voices in poetry and prose. This week poet Johnathan Lay reads
“Miracles Are Taxis She Just Can’t Hail.”

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[MIRACLES ARE TAXIS SHE JUST CAN’T HAIL]

By Johnathan Lay

—zoom in     standing
in vogue, body cracked
as if fallen from the heights, as if
            the gods have pushed her from
                        heaven, and here to the
lurid pulse of the beat she writes her
suicide note across the dancefloor

hand straight as the pressing of her hair
pointed to the very heavens in defiance
            of the deities who expelled her
                       “To Whom It May Concern…”
we read the etching of her hips and the flip of her wrists
like a codex found in the caves of gibraltor

we gather in our hands the grace shattered
in her fall to make balms for the wounds
            the divinity of our lives inflicted
                        her broken body begging
for our adulation and a cab ride home