Everywhere at once, aimless

though the day lilies

no longer make a sound

 

are used to how the sun

can still be found in moonlight

that has no rain left to comfort

 

with warm stones and the mist

that is now your heart

is circling night over night

 

as some giant red cloud

listening for the scent

from when a flower held your hand

 

too long and the calm

that has its fragrance: your echo

faint from waving goodbye

 

Published in the September 27, 2013 issue: View Contents
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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 (Cholla Needles, 2019).

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