THE COURTSHIP OF WINDS

Simon Perchik​

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You fold your arms the way this pasture

gnaws on the wooden fence

left standing in water –make a raft

 

though it’s these rotting staves

side by side that set the Earth on fire

with smoke rising from the ponds

 

as emptiness and ice –you dead

are winter now, need more wood

to breathe and from a single finger

 

point, warmed with ashes and lips

no longer brittle –under you

a gate is opened for the cold

 

and though there’s no sea you drink

from your hands where all tears blacken

–you can see yourself in the flames.

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