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An open access publication of the Ƶ
Spring 2007

Darkened Chessboard & Secret History

Author
Charles Simic
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Charles Simic, a Fellow of the American Ƶ since 2002, is professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. He has published more than sixty books, including “Unending Blues” (1986), “The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems” (1990), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “A Wedding in Hell” (1994), “Walking the Black Cat” (1996), a finalist for the National Book Award, “Jackstraws” (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, “The Book of Gods and Devils” (2000), and “My Noiseless Entourage” (2005).

Darkened Chessboard

With the night already fallen,
It’s hard to see who is playing,
Who is watching the game
At the little table in the park
Where no one says a word
Engrossed as they are in the next move.
 

Their dinners are getting cold.
The wives they left behind
Are worrying themselves sick
While they dither here
On the lookout for the white Queen
Last seen with a black pawn.

 

Secret History

Of the light in my room:
Its mood swings,
Dark-morning glooms,
Summer ecstasies.

Spider on the wall,
Lamp burning late,
Shoes left by the bed,
I’m your humble scribe.

Dust balls, simple souls
Conferring in the corner.
The pearl earring she lost,
Still to be found.

 

Silence of falling snow,
Night vanishing without trace,
Only to return.
I’m your humble scribe.