This is it –a match, wood, lit
the way a butterfly returns
by warming its wings wider
and wider, one against the other
then waits for the gust to spew out
as smoke lifting you to the surface
–this single match circling down
half on fire, half held close
is heating your grave, has roots
–embrace it, become a flower
fondle the ashes word by word
that erupt from your mouth
as an old love song, a breeze
worn away by hills and the light
coming back then lying down.
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 Reflection in a Glass Eye published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, 2020. For more information including free e-books and his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at http://www.simonperchik.com.
To view one of his interviews please follow this link
Serotonin 