Sample Poems by Corey Mesler

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Ygdrasil, our giant oak

Ygdrasil, our giant oak,
stands like a sentry
between heaven and our home.
No fallen angels disturb
our dinner. And our prayers are
full of earth and heat and acorns.

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Return of the Shadow

I did not want to rise
and answer the faint knock
on the door. But its
very gentleness beckoned
me. On the porch
stood my shadow,
a charcoal sketch of me,
a long-lost part.
He was as shy as I.
Neither of us spoke for
several minutes, and then he
said, I just thought of some-
thing. And, suddenly, I was
thinking that thought, too.
It filled my heart with accelerant.

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World Full of Spooky

Well, they didn’t tell me about the
bullies, about the dark at the end
of the dark. I was just a suburban
phantom, using smallness as a way
to hide. I was just a wee spark on
the asphalt, following balls into the
gutter, imagining girls without
their arrays. Forgive me, Mother.
Forgive me, Father. Though you’re
both gone I’ve never left you. This
is a disadvantage out here in the
electrical storm, in the abattoir school
hallways, in this world full of spooky.

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This cannot end

This cannot end,
our library of Proust and Kafka
and Agatha Christie.
This cannot end,
the M bridge lit at night,
lovers walking hand-
in-hand across the Father of
Waters, the air
cool on their fresh young cheeks.
This town on the river, this
muddy river, these birds
that swoop and sway in the up-
drafts. This note
my wife wrote me so I would
know I was loved while she
was away. This cannot end.
This cannot end,
our giant oak we call Ygdrasil,
alive again, earth-anchored, shading
our home, Quercus House,
our dog, our children walking
up the walk to visit, holding
the wee one’s soft hand.
And then this; this cannot end.