POEM

Against Whatever It Is That’s Encroaching

by Charles Simic

Best of all is to be idle,
And especially on a Thursday,
And to sip wine while studying the light:   
The way it ages, yellows, turns ashen   
And then hesitates forever
On the threshold of the night
That could be bringing the first frost.

It’s good to have a woman around just then,
And two is even better.
Let them whisper to each other
And eye you with a smirk.
Let them roll up their sleeves and unbutton their shirts a bit   
As this fine old twilight deserves,

And the small schoolboy
Who has come home to a room almost dark   
And now watches wide-eyed
The grown-ups raise their glasses to him,   
The giddy-headed, red-haired woman   
With eyes tightly shut,
As if she were about to cry or sing.

 Charles  Simic

Charles Simic, a native of Yugoslavia who immigrated to the United States during his teens, has . . . MORE »

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