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Writing My Angel
by Corey Mesler


I sat down to write my angel a Dear John letter.  Before I could even hoist my pen he was there beside me. His face wore the countenance I have seen in nightmares where those who love me turn on me like formerly tame wolves. I was just going to write my congressman, I said to him. He smiled like Judge Hawthorne.  Look, I said, this relationship is too one-sided. You in your heaven, and me in my, well, not hell exactly, but my cage of flesh. He nodded. I put my pen down and stretched like a cat.  He took the pen and paper and quickly sketched a portrait of me. In it I wear a coat of hair.  In it I wear a halo of brass. In it I am almost the man he wishes me to be, ripe with self-destructive and encouraging possibility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


© 2007 prickofthespindle.com

 

 

 


Corey Mesler is the owner of Burke's Book Store in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the country's oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals including Turnrow, Rattle, Pindeldyboz, Quick Fiction, American Poetry Journal, Thema, Mars Hill Review, Adirondack Review, Poet Lore and others. He has also been a book reviewer for The Memphis Commercial Appeal and Memphis Flyer. A short story of his was chosen for the 2002 edition of New Stories from the South: The Year's Best. Talk, his first novel, appeared in 2002. His second novel, We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon, came out in January 2006. His novels have received praise from Lee Smith, John Grisham, Robert Olen Butler, Frederick Barthelme, George Singleton, Marshall Chapman, Steve Stern and others. His latest poetry chapbooks are Short Story and Other Short Stories (2006), The Hole in Sleep (2006), The Agoraphobe's Pandiculations (2006), and The Chloe Poems (2007). His poem "Sweet Annie Divine," was chosen for Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. His first full-length collection of poetry, Some Identity Problems, is due out in 2007. He also claims to have written "Dang Me." Most importantly, he is Toby and Chloe's dad and Cheryl's husband. He can be found at www.coreymesler.com.