by Corey Mesler
The Beatles are singing “Taxman.”
The light coming in the window
is old light, yellowed with age.
On the floor I have spread the puzzle
of my middle age, splintered now,
seemingly lost to sense. Little hands
busy themselves with the words
which make up my splintered middle
age. They come up with small odes.
These odes may or may not be the
way out. The light lessens. It’s
the color of dishwater and the
song now playing is “Nowhere Man.”
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.
