Charon’s Cosmology

By Charles Simic b. 1938 Charles Simic

With only his dim lantern

To tell him where he is

And every time a mountain

Of fresh corpses to load up

Take them to the other side

Where there are plenty more

I’d say by now he must be confused

As to which side is which

I’d say it doesn’t matter

No one complains he’s got

Their pockets to go through

In one a crust of bread in another a sausage

Once in a long while a mirror

Or a book which he throws

Overboard into the dark river

Swift and cold and deep

Source: Charles Simic: Selected Early Poems (George Braziller Inc., 1999)

Biography

Charles Simic is widely recognized as one of the most visceral and unique poets writing today. Simic’s work has won numerous awards, among them the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” the Griffin International Poetry Prize, and, simultaneously, the Wallace Stevens Award and appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate. He taught English and creative writing for over thirty years at the University of New Hampshire. . . .

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