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Charles Simic

Mirrors at 4 A.M

You must come to them sideways
In rooms webbed in shadow,
Sneak a view of their emptiness
Without them catching
A glimpse of you in return.
 
The secret is,
Even the empty bed is a burden to them,
A pretense.
They are more themselves keeping
The company of a blank wall,
The company of time and eternity
 
Which, begging your pardon,
Cast no image
As they admire themselves in the mirror,
While you stand to the side
Pulling a hanky out
To wipe your brow surreptitiously.

#AmericanWriters

Other works by Charles Simic...
The Body

This last continent Still to be discovered. My hand is dreaming, is building Its ship. For crew it takes A pack of bones, for food
Crazy About Her Shrimp

We don’t even take time To come up for air. We keep our mouths full and busy Eating bread and cheese And smooching in between.
 1
Country Fair

for Hayden Carruth If you didn’t see the six-legged d… It doesn’t matter. We did, and he mostly lay in the c… As for the extra legs,
Wherein Obscurely

On the road with billowing poplars… In a country flat and desolate To the far-off gray horizon, where… A man and a woman went on foot, Each carrying a small suitcase.
Summer in the Country

One shows me how to lie down in a… Another how to slip my hand under… Another how to kiss with a mouth f… Another how to catch fireflies in… Here is a stable with a single bla…
Clouds Gathering

It seemed the kind of life we want… Wild strawberries and cream in the… Sunlight in every room. The two of us walking by the sea n… Some evenings, however, we found o…
The White Room

The obvious is difficult To prove. Many prefer The hidden. I did, too. I listened to the trees. They had a secret
Pigeons at Dawn

Extraordinary efforts are being ma… To hide things from us, my friend. Some stay up into the wee hours To search their souls. Others undress each other in darke…
Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites

Great are the Hittites. Their ears have mice and mice have… Their dogs bury themselves and lea… To guard the house. A single weed… Until the spiderwebs spread over t…
Against Winter

The truth is dark under your eyeli… What are you going to do about it? The birds are silent; there’s no o… All day long you’ll squint at the… When the wind blows you’ll shiver…
To the One Upstairs

Boss of all bosses of the universe… Mr. know-it-all, wheeler-dealer, w… And whatever else you’re good at. Go ahead, shuffle your zeros tonig… Dip in ink the comets’ tails.
Eyes Fastened With Pins

How much death works, No one knows what a long Day he puts in. The little Wife always alone Ironing death’s laundry.
Autumn Sky

In my great grandmother’s time, All one needed was a broom To get to see places And give the geese a chase in the… •
Private Eye

To find clues where there are none… That’s my job now, I said to the Dictionary on my desk. The world… My window has grown illegible, And so has the clock on the wall.
Errata

Where it says snow read teeth-marks of a virgin Where it says knife read you passed through my bones like a police-whistle



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