To make sure
You have not said:
“I love you,”
They smell your breath.
They even smell your heart
Trying times are these, my darling.
They flog love
Tied to the post of the cul-de-sac
We must hide love in the closet.
In this serpentine maze
This crooked cold corner
They feed the fire
With poems and songs
Thinking, too, is risky.
Those who, late at night, knock on the door,
Are there to kill the lamp.
We must hide the light in the closet.
Then there are the butchers
Stationed at all cross-roads,
Armed with a block and a bloody cleaver.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Surgically,
They plant smiles on lips,
And songs in the mouths.
We must hide joy in the closet.
On lilies and lilacs,
They roast the canaries.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Drunk with victory, the Devil,
Celebrates our wake.
We must hide God in the closet.

A few random poems:
- Lines Written in Windsor Forest poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Ruth by Thomas Hood
- Irony poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Олег Чупров – Он впадает в смятенье
- Олег Григорьев – Тонет муха в сладости
- In Imitation of Cowley : The Garden poem – Alexander Pope
- Владимир Высоцкий – Набат
- Владимир Луговской – Ночной патруль
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про правого инсайда
- once i saw a old man’s shop by tulip
- Epitaph for James Smith by Robert Burns
- Ancient pornography before pornography. 10 Most Shocking Sex Artifacts From The Ancient World. Amazing works of erotic art of the ancient world.
- Ок Мельникова – Hey jude
- Song—She’s Fair and Fause by Robert Burns
- The Apparitions by William Butler Yeats
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
- Teacher
- Sleep
- Ode To A Harmonica
- Intruder
- Do You Know What Its Like
- Hellcat
- Yours & Mine poem – Alice Fulton
- Woman In Front Of Poster Of Herself poem – Alice Notley
- Velocity Of Money poem – Allen Ginsberg
- The White Cliffs
- The Next Chance
- The Melancholy of Birth
- The islands of happiness
- The Internet Romance
- The End of the World
- The Terms In Which I Think Of Reality poem – Allen Ginsberg
- Tears
- Teachers Day special
- Succeeding Sentiments.
- Stalker poem – Alice Notley
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