After Hearing of Charles Simic’s Death
That such fire
should fade slants
the world off kilter,
where, perhaps,
it has always been.
My front door won’t
accept the key,
the yard is sand,
windows paint
my image over
every passing car.
The slightest sound
seems a warning,
and sleep
just darkness,
over and over again.
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Richard Spilman is the author of In the Night Speaking, and of two chapbooks, Suspension, and Dig. He is also the author of two books of short fiction, Hot fudge, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and The Estate Sale, which wasn’t.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 