by Corey Mesler
The young man ain’t got nothing in the world these days.
Mose Allison
I was a young man
in an old country
and the folks who came
before me left
little guidance. I wore a
rose in my hatband
when it wasn’t in. I
wrote poems to young
women as lost as I. I
drove cars too fast and
I drank and ate things
which gave me daymares.
I still fear. I was a
young man in a young
time but I didn’t know
the right names of things
nor what to say to
Susie, Betty and Jan.
I was a young man.
Perhaps you knew me then.
Perhaps I owe you an
apology. I am sorry.
Tell me again what I
meant to you, or to anyone.
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 over 20 books of fiction and poetry. His newest novel, The Diminishment of Charlie Cain, is from Livingston Press. He also wrote the screenplay for We Go On, which won The Memphis Film Prize in 2017. With his wife he runs Burke’s Book Store (est. 1875) in Memphis.
