contributors||||||||||||||||||||||||||||stickman home|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||V3N1 home

From a rowboat :a letter
By Simon Perchik

From a rowboat :a letter
still trying to leave—further down
alone and from my hand the current

slows—the goodbye will harden
into water and forever
and from the Earth

pulled step by step :these oars
have lost the road, lost the sea
and your name laid out on this envelope

—you will arrive
but my arm holds on to a few hours
to the warm splashes—the oars

openly their embrace and letting go
though the river almost stops
almost your lips and rising.