We were all out paving the old roads,
looking for a little understanding
in the remaining light.
Sue picked up a pick,
said, lemme ask you a question.
We waited for what we knew was coming.
It was the question we all wanted to ask.
It was the one about our ultimate purpose.
The sun was so hot
it made our hesitation broil.
Up ahead we heard tell was a horizon,
as wide as God’s last smile.
Bio:
Corey Mesler has published prose and/or poetry in Turnrow, Paumanok Review, Yankee Pot Roast, Monday Night, Elimae, H_NGM_N, The American Drivel Review, Poet Lore, Forklift OH, Euphony, Rattle, Dicey Brown, Cordite, Cellar Door, Heat City Literary Review, Ghoti, Cranky, Three Candles, StorySouth, Canopic Jar, Juked, Pindeldyboz, Mitochondria, Mars Hill Review, 13th Warrior Review, Monkeybicycle, Arkansas Review, Stirring, Red River Review, Center, Small Press Review, Jabberwock Review, Orchid, Quick Fiction, Timber Creek Review, Hobart, Poetry Motel, Bullfight, Potomac Review, Big Muddy, Slant, Texas Poetry Review, Rockhurst Review, Wavelength, Lilliput Review, Pearl, Ducts, Sunny Outside, Fish Drum, Mid-American Poetry Review, Dust, Cotyledon, Iodine, Snakeskin (England), The Melic Review, Spillway, Thema, Kumquat Meringue, Lonzie’s Fried Chicken, Electric Acorn (Dublin), Blue Unicorn, Black Dirt, The Spirit that Moves Us, Wind, Red Rock Review, BlazeVox, Concrete Wolf, Memphis Magazine, Rhino, Visions International. He has had work published in the anthologies Full Court: A Literary Anthology of Basketball (Breakaway Books), Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure (New World Press) and others.
He has been nominated many times for the Pushcart Prize. With his wife he owns Burke’s Book Store, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores.
Copyright Corey Mesler 2005