Present at the Unraveling
It started slowly, the way
weather and love do.
Some of us were living
on the coast and
sent messages inland.
Some of us, in the cities, began to
think about another way
to witness. With Barbara and Ken
I drove through the gathering
smoke. Our eyes were open wide.
The road, too. Ahead,
we knew, would be bad
news, gilded at times with
hope. I took Barbara’s hand. She
said: be here now.
Present at the unraveling.
Corey Mesler
Corey Mesler has been published in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Gargoyle, Five Points, Good Poems American Places, and New Stories from the South. He has published nine novels, four short story collections, six full-length poetry collections, and a dozen chapbooks. He’s been nominated for the Pushcart many times, and three of his poems were chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. He also wrote the screenplay for We Go On, which won The Memphis Film Prize in 2017. With his wife he runs a 144 year-old bookstore in Memphis. He can be found at https://coreymesler.wordpress.com.
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Poetry