The Fairy Tale Wife

by Corey Mesler
It's dark in the kitchen.
It's where they've chained her.
Her smile is like that
first apple, the one without the
poison. He approaches her
from the rear. It's how
he enters the fairy tale. He takes
her because that's how
it was written once upon a time.
She turns afterwards
toward him, her destination.
Her heart is sore. He
is like a wind, a beastly breeze.
He returns night after
night. He brings her stories
from other homes.
He brings her a bouquet of forks.

Corey Mesler has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published two novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), and We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006). His first full length poetry collection, Some Identity Problems (2008), is out from Foothills Publishing and his book of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations, will appear in March 2009. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and one of his poems was chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. He has two children, Toby, age 20, and Chloe, age 12. With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He also claims to have written "These Boots are Made for Walking." He can be found online at his website.

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