One Good Thing | Claire Taylor

is going out to dinner and trying to guess who’s on a first date. Everyone is on their phones. Including us. Facebook’s stock has plummeted and it thrills me. I only joined because that one job made me. I’m only aging because the other choice is death. What if our son takes a bullet to the face while learning subtraction? What if the car skids off the road and you die alone while I’m at home, angry that you’re running late? Let’s order two dishes and share them. Let’s splurge and upgrade to the sweet potato fries. We once watched a man walk through Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter completely nude, carrying a very tiny backpack. What do you think he keeps in there, I asked and you said, a harmonica. I think about that all the time, and about how often we dance when there’s no music playing. If I get up from the table right now to go to the bathroom, will you watch me walk away? What I mean is, are you still hungry? Should we split a dessert? 

Claire Taylor is a writer in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications. She is the author of Mother Nature, a collection of poetry and essays on mothering; Little Thoughts, a children's literature collection; and two micro-chapbooks: A History of Rats (Ghost City Press, 2021) and As Long as We Got Each Other (ELJ Editions, 2022). You can find Claire online at clairemtaylor.com and Twitter @ClaireM_Taylor.