Nicole Tallman

Yellow Light

Before you die, you first see a taxi.
I know this because a car almost took my life.
It was icy and I was driving. It doesn’t take much
to careen off a knife. I thought I saw a lily,
but it was linen. A light yellow that matched
her short dress. I remember when she said she couldn’t
love me. The lemon matches flamed out in duress.
The sewers in Paris are so old you smell them
all summer. When you’re in love, you block
so much shit out.

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