by Jo Taylor

What will survive of us is love. — Philip Larkin

Where do we go to hydrate another,
to give a cool cup of kindness?
Where will we look for our Samaria?
Not like we don’t have choices.
Relief centers aplenty. Soup kitchens
galore. Church closets like traffic
lights on every corner, beckoning
for response. There’s a soul out there
fallen among thieves or between bad luck 
and unfortunate circumstances. We don’t 
have far to go for an outstretched hand, 
a cry for mercy, a plea for a stranger’s smile.
If we consider the world, maybe we save
ourselves. Maybe.

Jo Taylor is a retired, 35-year English teacher from Georgia.  Her favorite genre to teach high school students was poetry, and today she dedicates more time to writing it, her major themes focused on family, place, and faith. She says she writes to give testimony to the past and to her heritage. In 2021 she published her first collection of poems, Strange Fire.  She enjoys walking in early morning, playing with her two grandsons, and collecting and reading cookbooks.