2026 Harold Taylor Prize

When We Are Nothing

by Ata Zargarof

after Rowena Wise

$picture a toy dinosaur being eaten by fire plastic skin blistering as flames feast a small fraction of petroleum is made of these beings: ancient carcasses dissolving into the oil that empires thirst for annihilation and irony: as humanity devours itself how will we become the future? when we are nothing what will remain of our love? millennia from now our bones melted down no longer human our ancestors are trees and stars immolation is destiny crude bodies, sacred dreams will our thoughts rejoin the world? but the frothy sea below marigolds, a stained-glass window your yellow scarf on the ferry my grey matter creating celluloid stained with light memories of you and I, somehow another beginning what if I choose to stay inside the house while it burns? like the word “nothing” written in pencil scrubbed out, erased what altars will they one day find our laughter inside?$

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2026 Harold Taylor Prize

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When We Are Nothing

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