Before taking root this darkness
was hollow –you could hear its echo
become a second sun, half moonlight
half pole to pole as a single ocean
drained softly at night –at what depth
did it bend the Earth toward evenings
lengthen them, let your hand curve
the way sea birds still lift one wing
into morning and home –at what garden
was this shoreline born, leaving the sea
to itself, listening for flowers, islands
and in your arms its sadness.
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, Forge, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection is The Gibson Poems published by Cholla Needles, 2019. For more information including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at http://www.simonperchik.com. To view one of his interviews please follow this link.
© 2019, Simon Perchik
Halfway Down the Stairs 