Yellow Mama E zine

The Poet Obsessed With Colette

 

by Richard Allen Taylor

 

Nice guy. Soft spoken. I knew him well. He seemed

obsessed with Colette, the novelist. In two years, he never

wrote about anything else. He soaked his poems in misery,

painted Colette’s husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars,

as a moustache-twisting villain who locked her in a room,

 

forced her to write, then published her first books

under his own pen name. Gauthier-Villars kept the money

for himself. She escaped, divorced him, found work

as an actress, lived in poverty until she returned

to writing, becoming France’s most celebrated novelist.

 

Surrounded by her precious cats, she spent

the rest of her days writing in her swank apartment

overlooking Paris. The poet obsessed with Colette

never caught up to the happy parts of her story.

He shot his neighbor dead with a nine-millimeter

 

pistol, then turned the gun on himself. Something

about an argument. A tree. A property line. A reporter

called to ask what I knew about the shooter. Not much,

I said. Nice guy. Soft-spoken. I thought I knew him well.

I didn’t know him at all.

 

 

       Richard Allen Taylor is the author of four poetry collections including Letters to Karen Carpenter and Other Poems (2023) from Main Street Rag Publishing Company.  His poems, articles and reviews have appeared in Aeolian Harp, Flying South, Litmosphere, Pinesong, Tar River Poetry, Rattle, and Sheila-Na-Gig Online, among others. Several of his poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He formerly served as review editor for The Main Street Rag and founding co-editor of Kakalak. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and currently resides in Greer, South Carolina. 

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        Sophia Wiseman-Rose (aka Sr. Sophia Rose) is a Paramedic and an Anglican novice Franciscan nun, in the UK.  Both careers have given Sophia a great deal of exposure to the extremes in life and have provided great inspiration for her.  

  She has travelled to many countries, on medical missions and for modelling (many years ago), but has spent most of her life between the USA and the UK. She is currently residing in a rural Franciscan community and will soon be moving to London to be with a community there.  

      In addition, Sophia had a few poems and short stories in editions of Black Petals Horror/Science Fiction Magazine

      The majority of her artwork can be found on her website.

  https://www.artstation.com/sophiaw-r6