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:
- Reply to a Trimming Epistle, received from a Tailor by Robert Burns
- The Gardener XXI: Why Did He Choose by Rabindranath Tagore
- Barnacles by Sidney Lanier
- Night Launch by Sonya Ki Tomlinson
- My Friends by W. S. Merwin
- June Dreams, In January by Sidney Lanier
- Иида Дакоцу – Синтоистское святилище у подножия горы в Одани
- Олег Григорьев – Ты боишься высоты
- Are You Content? by William Butler Yeats
- That Is by Satish Verma
- Epitaph on William Muir by Robert Burns
- Frog Autumn by Sylvia Plath
- Continuing To Live by Philip Larkin
- Tell me not here, it needs not saying poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Ольга Седакова – С нежностью и глубиной
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
- How To Raise Money For Your High School Study Abroad Experience
- Computer Cookies: Are They Good or Bad?
- The Best Blues Songs Ever
- The Effects of Chess on Leadership
- Holiday & Travel Guide For Paphos, Cyprus
- Will the SEZ Act Boost Exports?
- Art Therapy and Loss
- Fiction Tips – The Snare of Coincidence
- Interview With Joseph D’Agnese, Author Of Jersey Heat
- Top 5 Furniture Buying Tactics For the Best Purchase
- Chinese Zodiac Signs
- A Brief History of Special Education
- Priorities of Life and Death
- Goals – How to Get Everything You Want by Brian Tracy – Review
- How to Increase Your Faith
- Top Benefits of Wearing Peridot Birthstone
- How to Locate, Hire, and Work With an Article Writer
- Companies See Mobile Games Development As a Profitable Business Option
- Empowering Women in Gambia
- Is Hiring a Resume Writer Really Worth It?
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