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  My Father is a Frangible God
by Corey Mesler


My father, weak of heart;
every time he got sick
he got sicker.
Gone now, like a tune.
My father, who was the
gentle Pantagruel
in the mythologizing
I must do
concerning my growing up.
I have grown up.
I have children of my own,
a house, a business.
My father, angel of this
makeshift family,
watches over me still, as I
go floundering
into my own nebulous future,
his soft hand on my shoulder,
his kindly face, here, inside
my tabernacle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 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 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, receiving nice blurbs from Lee Smith, John Grisham, Robert Olen Butler, Frederick Barthelme, and others. His 2nd novel, We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon, came out in January 2006. It garnered praise from 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 "Gitarzan." Most importantly, he is Toby and Chloe's dad and Cheryl's husband. He can be found at www.coreymesler.com.