The Cots, the Store, the Crew

The cots, the stove, the crew
unclaimed in this Nissen hut :my mailbox
between twelve more :a camp
ditched, the road too narrow, curved
from rain and letters home, tissue thin
too weak to lift my lips, my slow
wide, rippling sweep
crumpled to tin, its great arc
now eyes and claws and thirst, the flag
soaked in blood, waving where it fell.

People I don't know send letters
promising to lose. I've already won!
A SOUTHERN CAPE FOR TWO that couldn't wait
printed on the envelope --my hangar's

full. Too many capitals and these stamps
each day heavier :monuments
defaced the first time up
tenacious as fly paper

--I can't separate the mail
just by calling out, every name
sounds as if mine at some briefing
we agreed the last one left
a prize that sounded more like laughter

--the letters too heavy now :a heap
as clouds still gather each evening red
--the last carrying their dead
to the pile :every sky

waiting on my table to be sent home
as a flower reaching into the world
or letters with my name outside.

Each Night the Longing

Each night the longing
as if it had a pedigree
could bark, a collar
and answers to a howl
my father chose and his father
and down to when this night
first lost its way. And wanted.

No lands, without a flag :an estate
older than boundaries --my son
as every star is bred
short, weak, wandering toward
a gesture :this soup

is always cold, allowed the silence
to remember, hear again my hands
rummaging. Or my father's. Or forever.

Nothing finishes. My son is fed
on the same floor except now
there's a table, just as rickety :the spoon

won't reach his lips
without the needed spill :the family name
written into his eyes
so deep nothing except the dark.
And missing.

Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The New Yorker, Queen's Quarterly and elsewhere. Readers interested in learning more are invited to read his essay Magic, Illusion and Other Realities at www.geocities.com/simonthepoet which has a complete bibliography.

Simon's Web Site

Email: Simon Perchik

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