Corey Zeller
Contest - Prose Poem
Corey Zeller is the author of Often You Light a Fuse to Prove You Won’t Explode (BOA Editions, 2027) and three other collections. His work has been published in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, The Missouri Review, Academy of American Poets, The Colorado Review, Indiana Review, Gulf Coast, Puerto del Sol, Mid-American Review, BOMB Magazine, Fence, Ninth Letter, The Rumpus, PEN America, Denver Quarterly, The Southeast Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Verse Daily, Copper Nickel, North American Review, Washington Square Review, Fugue, McSweeney’s, Diagram, Salt Hill, West Branch, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, Bat City Review, The Cincinnati Review, Willow Springs, Blackbird, Sonora Review, The Offing, among others. He received his MFA from Syracuse University.
It’s Not the End of the World, but I Can See It from Here
Lilies smell terrible. They remind me of your mother’s garden. That strong stench of them. The blind dog you hated. The grass uncut. And in your basement: dust. So much dust it seemed whatever was down there lived off dust. On weekends, you got carried away to your father’s house in the blue whale of a Chevrolet. We’d talk on the phone for hours. Tell stories about murderers. Tell stories about monsters. Hoping they never caught us. Hoping they weren’t what we’d become. Once, when you were about ten, I called you and you were crying. You were crying because your father wouldn’t wake up. And one day, he never woke up again. He used to say: “It’s not the end of the world, but I can see it from here.” And I think of it often. I’m thinking of it now, cutting the stems of these lilies, putting them away in a vase. Even though they have nothing to do with him. Even though, right now, I see no end. I cut stems. I believe an end is near but for someone else. Not for us; never for us. And look: these lilies! How fresh, how pungent! And look: they’ve already begun to wilt.
“ I was aware that I hadn't written a poem for my friend, whom I have known for about thirty years, so I intentionally set out to write something I thought might move him. I don't think it worked, lol, but I tried. ”