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“On the Rocks” is a poetry collection about relationships, conflict, love, and other observations. It covers Peace Corps stories, family drama, the heartbreak of losing a dog, and more. It’s a book about navigating loss and negotiating the everyday.

Taylor Dibbert is a writer and poet in Washington, DC. Over the years, Taylor’s writing and journalism have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Foreign Affairs, HuffPost, and others.

Sample Poems

Versions of these poems first appeared in A Thin Slice of Anxiety.

Nowhere to Hide

He’s meeting a friend for drinks
At his local watering hole
And the two of them
Talk about all kinds of things
And then his friend asks him
If he still writes poetry
And he says yes
And the friend asks what it is
About poetry that he likes so much
And he doesn’t know where to begin
The search for precision
The examination of pain
Revisiting old scars and
Processing fresh wounds
Readying oneself
For the trauma and triumphs ahead
But more than anything else
What he likes about poetry
Is the urgent need to get to the point
And the fact that there’s nowhere to hide.

~~

Cotton and Reed

He’s stopped by
His local liquor store
Doesn’t really need anything
In particular
Feels like picking
Something up
Already has
Plenty of beer
Not in the mood
For wine
He’s in the
Liquor section
Now
Checking out the rums
He doesn’t drink
A lot
Of rum
But it is something
He enjoys
From time
To time
Sets his eyes
On a bottle
From Cotton and Reed
A distillery
In Northeast DC
Feels like he’s
In the mood
For rum
Picks up
The bottle
Mellow Gold
And then
He goes back
In time
When he
Was at
Cotton and Reed
Touring the distillery
With her
Thinks this happened
On a Saturday morning
But he can’t remember
They toured distillery
Then had cocktails
At the bar
After that
They wandered
To some
Random spot
For dinner
Splitting a pizza
Holding hands
Having fun
He remembers
Getting into an Uber
And she entered
The right side
Of the car
And quickly moved
To the middle seat
They spoke for
A few minutes
And then
She fell asleep
On his shoulder
On their way back
To their place
In Takoma
It was a fun day
And night
Bright and sunny
No sign
Of storm clouds
No indication
Of what was
On the horizon.

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