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:
- The Moon’s Truth (before the war) by Reena Ribalow
- An Evening by William Allingham
- Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold by William Shakespeare
- Song Of The Colours By Taj Mahomed
- Наум Коржавин – О Господи! Как я хочу умереть
- Владимир Маяковский – Был без работы буржуям пир… (Главполитпросвет №24)
- Владимир Маяковский – Служака
- Ballade Of The Bookworm poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Наум Коржавин – Еще в мальчишеские годы
- Гавриил Державин – На Новый год
- To Arms! poem – Alfred Austin
- You’re by Sylvia Plath
- Who does she think she is…. by Shel Silverstein
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On Holy Willie:
- Юлия Друнина – Геологиня
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
- A Fable by William Cowper
- A Comparison by William Cowper
- A Comparison. Addressed To A Young Lady by William Cowper
- A Child Of God Longing To See Him Beloved by William Cowper
- William Ellery Leonard – William Ellery Leonard
- Wayside Flowers by William Allingham
- These Little Songs by William Allingham
- The Touchstone by William Allingham
- The Little Dell by William Allingham
- The Fairies by William Allingham
- The Eviction by William Allingham
- The Boy by William Allingham
- Robin Redbreast by William Allingham
- Places and Men by William Allingham
- On a Forenoon of Spring by William Allingham
- Meadowsweet by William Allingham
- Lepracaun or Fairy Shoemaker, The by William Allingham
- Late Autumn by William Allingham
- William Allingham – William Allingham
- In Snow by William Allingham
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