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Phobia
Corey Mesler

The fireworks upset the dog.
She won’t look at me
from her safe space. I
want to tell her that I know all
about safe spaces. Then
I want her to know that she
and I still belong in this world,
with its din and its strangers.

—
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 25 books of fiction and poetry. His newest novel, Cock-a-Hoop, is from Whiskey Tit. 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.

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