My Aunt Agni

My Aunt Agni
sends me a personal note.
Stop dreaming,
you little jerk, and do some
real work.
My Aunt Agni
only wants what’s best for
me, I think.
She’s my mother’s ugly
sister but we all
love her for her songs and
the way she does
the laundry.

Dear Aunt Agni, I write back,
There’s a platypus
on the playground. There’s
a gyroscope
in the master bedroom.
This makes Aunt Agni
stop writing me altogether.
I miss her now. I
wish I had been more
practical. I
think about getting a job,
one my Aunt Agni will
be proud of. Maybe then
she will let me
write her again, with my
atonal music
and my love for the stranger
manifestations of
Eden’s First Nomenclature.
Dear Aunt Agni,
I will start. Dear deaf
dead Aunt Agni,
I will start my best letter
to her, my Aunt Agni.

_____________________________________________

Corey Mesler is the owner of Burke’s Book Store, in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals including Rattle, Pindeldyboz, Quick Fiction, American Poetry Journal, Thelma, Mars Hill Review, Adirondack Review, Poet Lore, and others.