*
You come here to sort the cold
meet in front some nude
embraced by a wooden frame
half pine. half as if the paint
needs the silence, covers her death
on a wall kept up to date
the way the journals report
on those latest lotions that dry
from the bottom up, let the corners
touch ̶ this woman was loved
and from among so many colors
given eyes that never close
sees you are holding a coat
already folded, held tight
as if something has gone wrong.
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 Family of Man Poems published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, 2021. For more information including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at simonperchik.com
To view one of his interviews please follow this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSK774rtfx8