Cockahoop, Xianggang, February 4th

We were greeted by the denizens with a parade and small gifts. I received a microscopic elephant carved neatly from an actual tusk. My guide, Actaeon, was given a timepiece showing earthly hours alongside those of heaven. Spent a peaceful day eating the local specialty they call Mast. It tasted of ashes and overly fermented mead. That night we opted to sleep under the stars as the local inn seemed to be full of Jacklighters. We slept well under wheeling Orion, the night air as cool as a young head of lettuce.

COREY MESLER has published extensively. anthologies. He has published 6 novels, 2 full length poetry collections, and 3 books of short stories. He has also published a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems were chosen for Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. His fiction has received praise from John Grisham, Robert Olen Butler, Lee Smith, Frederick Barthelme, Greil Marcus, among others. With his wife, he runs Burke's Book Store in Memphis, TN.