Postponing the Voyage

by Corey Mesler

 

"O what was it in the life of things that prized open shells, lifted
up the bloom off stalks, and slipped the skin off serpents, on and on and on?"
~ William Goyen

 

We hear the dry cough
behind us
and we don't even turn.
Sloughing off every
coat, turning
every pair of pants pockets
inside out,
looking for change,
we are pinned in place.
Our dead shoes
are laid out like a trousseau.
And the shadow, always at
the ready,
stirs in his chair,
the tv flickering between
horrors, the
reception is that bad.

 

© 2005 Corey Mesler

Corey Mesler has published in numerous journals and anthologies. His novel, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue, was released in 2002. He also has a number of poetry chapbooks available. In 2005, his second novel, We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon will be released. He also claims to have written, "Incense and Peppermints." With his wife, he runs Burke's Book Store in Memphis TN.