Corey Mesler is an American writer and shopkeeper, born July 20, 1955.
Mesler’s work has published in numerous journals and anthologies including The Esquire Narrative4 Project (2013) and Good Poems, American Places (Viking Press 2011). He has published seven novels and 3 books of short stories, along with a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. Two of his poems have been chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the oldest independent bookstores in the United States.
LET THE LIGHT STAND
Corey Mesler
Let the light stand for nothing
but illumination. Let
the naked man and woman
out for air. Let the curtain hide
only another side of the
curtain. Let the food consumed
be consummated. Let the
consommé be a dish. Let the
dish into the bedroom
because she is there for the
cat. Let the cat be cool as Miles.
Let it all happen again
if you can. Let it happen again
if you can. Let the first word
spoken during intercourse be the
only definition you require. Let
need be need. Let love be need
also, if need be. And let
it all happen again because it can.