by Alden Nowlan
A mysterious naked man has been reported
on Cranston Avenue. The police are performing
the usual ceremonies with coloured lights and sirens.
Almost everyone is outdoors and strangers are conversing
excitedly
as they do during disasters when their involvement is
peripheral.
‘What did he look like? ‘ the lieutenant is asking.
‘I don’t know, ‘ says the witness. ‘He was naked.’
There is talk of dogs-this is no ordinary case
of indecent exposure, the man has been seen
a dozen times since the milkman spotted him and now
the sky is turning purple and voices
carry a long way and the children
have gone a little crazy as they often do at dusk
and cars are arriving
from other sections of the city.
And the mysterious naked man
is kneeling behind a garbage can or lying on his belly
in somebody’s garden
or maybe even hiding in the branches of a tree,
where the wind from the harbour
whips at his naked body,
and by now he’s probably done
whatever it was he wanted to do
and wishes he could go to sleep
or die
or take to the air like Superman.

A few random poems:
- Poems On Beauty by Rabindranath Tagore
- Robert Burns: My Tocher’s The Jewel:
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бартеневой
- The Space Heater by Sharon Olds
- Epistle to Major Logan by Robert Burns
- Flora by William Morris
- Delight in Disorder by Robert Herrick
- Ольга Седакова – Ни темной старины заветные преданья
- An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith
- Владимир Маяковский – Нас шахтер углем поздравит… (РОСТА)
- Иван Бунин – Не видно птиц
- Ladies And Gentlemen In Outer Space by Ron Padgett
- Mother’s Death 1981 by Michael S Wilson
- A Working Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- To A Clergyman On The Death Of His Lady by Phillis Wheatley
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- The Song Of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats
- The Song Of The Old Mother by William Butler Yeats
- The Shadowy Waters: The Harp of Aengus by William Butler Yeats
- The Seven Sages by William Butler Yeats
- The Secret Rose by William Butler Yeats
- The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
- The Scholars by William Butler Yeats
- The Saint And The Hunchback by William Butler Yeats
- The Sad Shepherd by William Butler Yeats
- The Rose Tree by William Butler Yeats
- The Rose Of The World by William Butler Yeats
- The Rose Of Peace by William Butler Yeats
- The Rose Of Battle by William Butler Yeats
- The Results Of Thought by William Butler Yeats
- The Realists by William Butler Yeats
- The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers by William Butler Yeats
- The Pity Of Love by William Butler Yeats
- The Pilgrim by William Butler Yeats
- The Phases Of The Moon by William Butler Yeats
- The People by William Butler Yeats
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works