Charles Simic

I am reading Charles Simic Selected Early Poems right now and I am honestly in awe of his writing, especially the way he is able to pare down a poem into the most essential elements.

The Inner Man

It isn't the body
That's a stranger.
It's someone else.

We poke the same mug
At the world.
When I scratch,
He scratches too.

There are women
Who claim to have held him.
A dog follows me about.
It might be his.

If I'm quiet, he's quieter.
So I forget him.
Yet, as I bend down
To tie my shoelaces,
He's standing up.

We cast a single shadow.
Whose shadow?

I'd like to say:
"He was in the beginning
And he'll be in the end,"
But one can't be sure.

At night
As I sit
Shuffling the cards of our silence,
I say to him:

"Though you utter
Every one of my words,
You are a stranger.
It's time you spoke."