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:
- Tu Fu – Tu Fu
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Праздник на биваке
- Lucy by William Wordsworth
- Омар Хайям – Цветам и запахам владеть тобой доколе
- Depths
- Tame Cat poem – Ezra Pound poems
- The Love! by Praveen Parasar
- Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare
- Nature And the Book poem – Alfred Austin
- Sonnet 76: Why is my verse so barren of new pride? by William Shakespeare
- Николай Некрасов – В полном разгаре страда деревенская
- The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton
- The Bride-Cake by Robert Herrick
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я видел тень блаженства
- An Old Doll
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 Journey Through The Moonlight by Russell Edson
- Antimatter by Russell Edson
- A Stone Is Nobody’s by Russell Edson
- Counting Sheep by Russell Edson
- Sleep by Russell Edson
- Paying The Captain by Russell Edson
- Grass by Russell Edson
- Angels by Russell Edson
- Ape by Russell Edson
- Hands by Russell Edson
- The Fall by Russell Edson
- The Family Monkey by Russell Edson
- Elephant Dormitory by Russell Edson
- Conjugal by Russell Edson
- A Historical Breakfast by Russell Edson
- The Essay on Liberty by Abraham Cowley
- Hauntings by Rupert Brooke
- Goddess In The Wood, The by Rupert Brooke
- Flight by Rupert Brooke
- Finding by Rupert Brooke
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