Charles Simic (#poem)

 

Watermelons

Green Buddhas

On the fruit stand.

We eat the smile

And spit out the teeth.

Venus

The well-lit,

All-night drugstore

In the sky

Open for business

Something, please,

Miss,

To ease my fear

Of the dark.

She, not looking up,

Busy

Measuring

Into a vial

Drop after drop

Of that clear

Odorless drug,

They call infinity.

Further Adventures of Charles Simic

Is our Charles Simic afraid of death?

Yes, Charles Simic is afraid of death.

Does he kneel and pray for eternal life?

No, he's busy drawing a valentine with a crayon.

Pale as a freshly chopped onion,

He goes over the wrongs he committed.

His conscience, does it bother him much?

Only when he lies down to get a night's rest.

The hellfires, does he feel them closing in?

No, but he hears the hounds barking.

Does he lift his eyes humbly in forgiveness?

Her love was his judge, her wrath the jury.

Some dark night, praying to the Lord above,

His own tongue will slash his throat.

-Charles Simic

After Charles Simic passed away a couple of weeks ago (Jan. 9), I pulled the book off the shelf and have been making my way through it again. These are a couple that caught my eye on this rereading. (I haven't yet finished it.)

Simic (1938-2023) was born in Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and moved to the U.S. as a teenager in in 1954. He won a Pulitzer for poetry as well as various other awards, and was made the U.S. poet laureate in 2007. (A two-year term, I think, at that point.) 

'Watermelons' is from his book Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk. (1974)

'Venus' is from They Forage at Night. (1980)

'Further Adventures of Charles Simic' is from Biography and a Lament. (1976)