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:
- Sonnet 129: Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame by William Shakespeare
- Promise Me Rain Retold by Roberto Cocina
- Омар Хайям – Не оплакивай, смертный, вчерашних потерь
- Sonnet LXIX by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Маяковский – Ненавистью древней… (РОСТА № 198)
- Matter For Gratitude poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Казалось
- Abt Vogler by Robert Browning
- Holding On by Philip Levine
- Валерий Брюсов – Из наблюдений
- Gipsies by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – Долой волокиту! Да здравствует революционная инициатива! (РОСТА № 493 )
- Song Unsung by Rabindranath Tagore
- Before by Robert Browning
- Sonet 52 by William Alexander
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
- Bereavement by William Lisle Bowles
- Beautiful Aberfoyle by William Topaz McGonagall
- Balmoral Castle by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Ode in Time of Hesitation by William Vaughn Moody
- An Excursion Steamer Sunk in the Tay by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Address to the New Tay Bridge by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Address to Shakespeare by William Topaz McGonagall
- All Kinds by William Wright Harris
- A Welcome by William Browne
- A Soldier’s Reprieve by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Requisition to the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Poetry Reading At West Point by William Matthews
- A Grey Day by William Vaughn Moody
- I see the Four-fold Man by William Blake
- An Imitation of Spenser by William Blake
- Gwin King of Norway by William Blake
- Intorduction to the Songs of Experience by William Blake
- Fair Elanor by William Blake
- England! awake! awake! awake! by William Blake
- I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day by William Blake
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