The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Untitled~ By Simon Perchik 

3/19/2015

0 Comments

 
*
You keep the limp, stoop
the way this cane
lets you pretend its wood

can heal, touches down
making contact with the base
though there are no planes 

–what you hear is your leg
dragged, starting up 
and still the sky weighs too much

is filled with twigs breaking off
somewhere between England
and the slow walk home.

*
Without a riverbed you lean
feel your way through this dirt
as if it’s her voice you’re after 

–for a long time, eyes closed
you empty the Earth with your mouth
darkening this built-up moss

sent off for a stone near water
stretching out to smooth the silence
hidden the way innocent bells

were placed along the shore
with no light to take away
or welcome rocks around her body. 

*
Though her finger can’t reach
she’s telling you be quiet
as if there’s a word for it

shaped by a breath from where
the light on her face was lowered 
–shadows know this, let you

lie there, go over the details 
–from the start, her breasts
wanting so much to make a sound

cover the dirt with your mouth
pressing against her, begin
as silence, then nothing. 

*
Side by side as if the moon
carries off those buttons
close together and your coat

dyed black to make it heavier 
–you let it fall, lay there 
–yes, you were in love

sang to birds, to burials
though it’s the moon
coming back and the darkness

it needs to close the ground
that goes on alone
yes, you couldn’t move. 

*
Motionless, on the way out
no longer feels at home
though this single-minded nail

wants the job finished now
wanted a small hole, filled
to silence the song in the picture

in black and white taking her away
holding on –what’s left
will lower the wooden frame

is already caressing the wall
that something happened to
is surrounded by winds and cries

that carry off birds, bent the Earth
and the exhausted nail, by itself
between your fingers and suddenness.


Author Bio:
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poetry has appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, The New Yorker and elsewhere.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org