What does it mean,
the passion is gone?
This new bed has no secrets.
The old one, my twin,
had too fine a memory.
It cries now in the attic
like a squonk.
The chain is rusting, a
link, then two, missing.
In the room
the women come
and go.

© 2005 Corey Mesler

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, Cranky, Thema, Mars Hill Review, Poet Lore and others. He has also been a book reviewer for The Memphis Commercial Appeal. A short story of his was chosen for the 2002 edition of New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, published by Algonquin Books. Talk, his first novel, appeared in 2002.

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