Crooked Smiles
“A crooked smile is
better than a crooked heart;
open me to God.”
— Sarah Ruhl
I did not understand my mother’s
reluctance to having a
picture taken. “My smile is
crooked,” she averred.
Bell’s palsy was the culprit.
Now I am old and she has gone
and bell’s palsy has also
corrupted my once boyish smile.
Of things I worry about
it doesn’t rank very high. I’m
still as beautiful as a hackman’s hat.
Worse is the mental battle, the
one refought every morning,
over whether or not I would have
a day of harrowing mental
weather. My mom was a little crazy, too.
I wish I could talk to her
about it now, but even if she were alive,
she wouldn’t go there. Into the darkness
where our crooked smiles do not matter.
How to Swim
How to swim with
weight in your heart.
Start in the shallow end.
Butterfly to the furthest
point. See if anyone is
watching. No one is
watching. The water laps
around you like applause.
COREY MESLER has been published in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Gargoyle, Lunch Ticket, Five Points, Good Poems American Places, and New Stories from the South. He has published over 45 books of fiction and poetry. With his wife he owns Burke’s Book Store (est. 1875) in Memphis.