*
Rubbed smooth though grave to grave
what this rock carries inside helps lift it
to see through—the dress, black
then silence then the shoulders
she was buried in, growing wild
the way every mountain bit by bit
waves goodbye as if its belly
is always empty, needs to be warmed
pulled closer, sleeves and all.
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 Giibson Poems published by Cholla Needles, 2019. For more information including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website. View one of his interviews here.