He
The world tonight is so old,
so dark, as if
its long-awaited end is near.
Dogs sleep in the dark,
silence creeps into every corner.
Behind the open window in the living room,
even the curtains do not stir.
Outside, it’s so quiet, it’s as if
the night stands before the blackboard,
without having learned its lesson.
In my library, thousands of books
on the shelves remain silent, exhausted
from centuries of speaking.
Even the cockroach treads carefully
across the bathroom tiles.
Only from the bedroom comes the sound
of the eternal reader wetting his finger,
turning to the next page,
and I gently close the door
with my hand over my mouth.
Peycho Kanev is the author of 12 poetry collections and three chapbooks, published in the USA and Europe. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, such as: Rattle, Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Front Porch Review, Hawaii Review, Barrow Street, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others.
