poem: Taylor Mali

After Hearing About Your Breast Cancer,
My Ex-Father-in-Law Called Me To Ask
If He Could Write You a Letter

which seemed
a strange question
until you said
it made perfect sense:

He didn’t know
where to begin
and was half hoping
you wouldn’t want to hear
what he did not know
how to say.

TAYLOR MALI’s second book of poems, The Last Time As We Are, was published by Write Bloody in September 2009. He was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. His work has appeared in anthologies and other publications including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, The Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry, Spoken Word Revolution, The Tampa Review, The Underwood Review, Taj Mahal Review, Cadillac Cicatrix, Spindle, The Whatever Literary Journal, and Paddlefish.