*

Simon Perchik

Hiding on this tiny rock
its light is falling arm over arm
brought down as hammer blows

and mountains clinging to the sun
the way mourners will gather
and aim for your forehead

–it’s not right for you dead
to lower your eyes once they’re empty
–they have so much darkness

are still looking for tears
and all around you the Earth
splitting open a single afternoon

up close –you are touching seawater
without anything left inside
to take the salt from your mouth.

_______________

Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. His most recent collection is Almost Rain, published by River Otter Press (2013). For more information, including free e-books, his essay titled “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities.” Please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com.