Simon Perchik’s most recent poem to appear here was “Everywhere at once, aimless” (October 2018).
Not yet feathers though you
still breathe in the smoke
trailing from some climbing turn
hidden by clouds and weightless
circling this tree allowed at last
to shed its bark, warmed
the way each leaf expects
a better life somewhere, takes hold
with its wings around the Earth
carried up hillside over hillside
spurting more and more blood
from your eyes, your ears
till their shadow flies from under you
escapes this time, hovering overhead
as branches and evenings
and further though their roots
come by to remember why this sky
ended its wandering and closed.
Opening line catches and the rest of the poem rewards.