The Poet As Bemused Spectator

“Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.” – Charles Simic

Born in May1938, Simic is a multiple award-winning poet including a Pulitzer Prize  for his book The World Doesn't End.  He’s also two-time Pulitizer finalist for his Selected Poems, 1963-1983 and Unending Blues, and winner of the Robert Frost Prize.   

                                        Critics have referred to Simic's poems as "tightly constructed Chinese puzzle boxes.” He himself stated: "Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat and the poet is merely the bemused spectator."  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Simic’s

               Country Fair

If you didn't see the six-legged dog,
It doesn't matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.

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