*
Side by side a planet that has no star
you wander for years
which means remorse has taken hold
the way this dried love note
never lets go its warmth
though the afternoon becomes a place
for constellations, is wobbling
as silence and the end
—where else can it hide
is more forgiving than a period
left where a well-meaning sentence
gave all it had and for the first time
a darkness was falling from above
bird-like, spreading out as far away
around and around, over and over again.
Author’s Bio
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, Forge, Queen’s Quarterly, Osiris, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection is The Osiris Poems published by box of chalk, 2017. For more information, including free e-books, and his essay titled “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com.