This Time

Corey Mesler

Everything is a little brighter.

It must be the lights.

Your smile, once a blister

with teeth, now waits

for me like a bride in a brothel.

I take my time because I

have learned that time is fluid,

time is friendly to the mingy

and the slapdash. I

think about you when the night

closes in. It closes in about

five minutes. Just time enough to

erase your memory and

squat near the door, a dog in heat,

a dog, tired of its history.