Texas Open
Jeffrey L. Taylor
July 23, 2023
Facing each other across the Edwards Escarpment,
the Coastal Plain opens, serving up Gulf moisture
to the Hill Country, which returns a spinning Polar Vortex.
Rain and ice drive sideways. The Coastal Plain scrambles
to return the volley. The match goes into overtime,
two nights. Austin trees reach break point.
Jeffrey L. Taylor's first submitted poems won 1st place and runner-up in Riff Magazine's 1994 Jazz and Blues Poetry Contest. Encouraged, he continues to write and has been published in di-vêrsé-city, The Perch, Enchantment of the Ordinary anthology, Texas Poetry Calendar, The Langdon Review, and Texas Poetry Assignment. Serving as sensei (instructor) to small children and professor to graduate students has taught him humility.