Distortion

I am quiet now, like

the root, like the

pond. I come to you,

a breeze. You

feel me and I have already

passed on. You

touch your own cheek.

A partial memory

occurs to you, something

slim like a shadow.

Something shallow, and slim.

Ash

Like a fire

I want

to once again

drink

the dew

from

the flower

betweenyourlegs.

COREY MESLER has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published two novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002) and We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006). His first full length poetry collection, Some Identity Problems (2008), is out from Foothills Publishing and his book of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations, appeared in March 2009. He also has two novels set to be published in the next year. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and one of his poems was chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. He has two children, Toby, age 20, and Chloe, age 13. With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He also claims to have written “In the Year 2525.” He can be found HERE.