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:
- With No Experience In Such Matters by Stephen Dunn
- Inscription for the Headstone of Fergusson the Poet by Robert Burns
- Олег Григорьев – Дачник
- Жан де Лафонтен – Осел и Собака
- Go Get The Goodly Squab by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Высоцкий – Корабли постоят, и ложатся на курс
- Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet Xv
- My Mouth Hovers Across Your Breasts
- The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief by Rudyard Kipling
- As In Their Flight The Birds Of Song by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Юрий Верховский – Судьба с судьбой
- The End of the World
- Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Высоцкий – Вова испугался
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
- Hero by Siegfried Sassoon
- Haunted by Siegfried Sassoon
- Golgotha by Siegfried Sassoon
- Goblin Revel by Siegfried Sassoon
- Glory Of Women by Siegfried Sassoon
- France by Siegfried Sassoon
- Fight to a Finish by Siegfried Sassoon
- Fancy Dress by Siegfried Sassoon
- Falling Asleep by Siegfried Sassoon
- Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon
- Enemies by Siegfried Sassoon
- Elegy by Siegfried Sassoon
- Editorial Impressions by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dryads by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dream-Forest by Siegfried Sassoon
- Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon
- Died of Wounds by Siegfried Sassoon
- Devotion to Duty by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dead Musicians by Siegfried Sassoon
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