| Corey is widely published, author of Chin-Chin in Eden (Still Waters Press), winner of the Moonfire Poetry Chapbook Competition, and owner of Burke's Book Store. He is also a book reviewer for The Commercial Appeal, BookPage, The Memphis Flyer, and Brightleaf. His novel-in-dialogue, Talk, has received raves from Lee Smith, Robert Olen Butler, Steve Stern, Debra Spark, Suzanne Kingsbury, Frederick Barthelme and John Grisham. He lives in Tennessee. |
© 2003 Corey Messler
A
white
sock
sleeps
in
my
shirt
sleeve
like
a
static snake.
"And thus I come accounting,
With all my enchantments."
Eduardo Calderón
My magic is weak as tea.
It thins even as I
unwind it.
The audience grows restless.
The children
I counted on for rapturous
focus are moving
on. I shift gears. I open up
the last book,
the one I had hoped not to use.
George is dead. John is dead.
Linda is dead. Who would
have thought this early
the magic would be so diminished?
I sit in my father's chair
while he languishes in the ER.
The TV is showing an old
Ronald Reagan movie.
The world seems off-axis, a place
of malefaction and monkeys.
Sometimes time seems
to coagulate. Everything only lasts, I know,
a little while, eternally.
All work is copyrighted property of Corey Messler.
[back to top] [home]
|
© 2004 SubtleTea Productions All Rights Reserved |