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While We Are Away


Things in our homes
Keep busy
By shushing one another
And enforcing the silence.



Come to Think


The fly sitting on my nose
Must’ve come to listen
To the one buzzing all day
Inside my empty head.



Halloween


“Here is your bus ticket to Taj Mahal,”
A woman dressed as a witch
Whispered in my ear as we waited
For lights to change on Broadway



May My Death Come


With as little hurry
As a pregnant nun
Going to confess
Her sins to a priest.



Last Bet for the Night


Wagered one more thought
Against the infinite,
The one about this moment
I just lived through
Being all that is true,
While my heart raced
To place one last chip
On this dark night’s
Spinning roulette wheel.


—Charles Simic



Charles Simic, who died in January of 2023, was the author of many books of poetry, including Come Closer and Listen and Hotel Insomnia. A U.S. Poet Laureate and winner of a MacArthur fellowship, he was a regular Threepenny contributor from 2016 onward. These are the last five poems he gave us.