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.

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, Camel’s Bastard Son, is from Cabal Books. 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.