--you're used to this cold  
to the whispers that stretch out 
for the warming stars 
and from your cheeks 
their emptiness --to you 
these leaves are always in midair
these trees gently touching down. 

 You almost turn on your side  
and the slow ice over your eyes
that moves without you 
that covers the ground 
even in the daytime. No.  

The Earth will never leave you  
and though face up you can hear the sky changing 
colors the way this plane 
all the while on edge 

 --you almost, almost jump and in the breeze 
this simple flower I bring here 
opens easily, fills 
with that dark breath 
I know by heart, lifts you  

and slowly into moonlight  
your arms around just one flower 
on course and higher. 

Si Perchik is author of sixteen books of poetry, including "The Gandolf Poems" (White Pine Press, 1987), "The Emptiness Between My Hands" (Dusty Dog Press, 1993) and "These Hands Filled With Numbness" (Dusty Dog Press, 1996). A reprinting of his first sixteen volumes is scheduled for publication through Pavement Saw Press in the year 2000. An attorney whose work has been printed in Partisan Review, Poetry, The Nation, North American Review, APR, Beloit, The New Yorker among others, his work is found in the Library of Congress Rare Book Collection.
 

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