by Ajmer Rode
Kalli followed me eight miles
to the market where
animals were traded like slaves.
Cows goats bullocks camels
Kalli was black beautiful and six
prime age for a water buffalo.
She was dry. Repelled bulls as if she had
decided never to go green.
Hard to afford, my father decided
to sell her.
She obeyed as I led her
by the steel chain, one end in my hand
the other round her neck.
I was fifteen. Her nervousness was over
soon after we entered the market
where sellers occupied
their given spaces like matrimonials
on a large weekly page.
Kalli sat down with no emotion in her eyes
like an ascetic close to nirvana.
I sat stood walked around like a
neglected calf. Nobody bought Kalli.
She followed me 8 miles back home
I wasn’t sure if Father was sad
or glad to see her back. He just
looked at her like a family member
who had missed the train.

A few random poems:
- Владимир Маяковский – Рабочий, ты читал СНК наказ?.. (Главполитпросвет №292)
- The Melancholy of Birth
- Her Praise by William Butler Yeats
- Валерий Брюсов – Игорю Северянину (Строя струны лиры клирной)
- Alone by Siegfried Sassoon
- Robert Burns: Young Peggy Blooms:
- For Aun by Lynne Scott
- Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV, To Richard Boyle, poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- As I Watch’d the Ploughman Ploughing. by Walt Whitman
- Михаил Кузмин – Туманный день пройдет уныло
- The Other Half by Shaunna Harper
- Rimmon by Rudyard Kipling
- Ольга Берггольц – Разведчик
- God Cut the Cord by Raj Napal
- Comments: A Life Well Lived is Always an Inspiration – My Friend Muniappan Velu of Chennai, India
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
- On Hermocratia (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Flaxman’s Penelope by William Cowper
- On Flatteries (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Female Inconstancy (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Envy (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Delia (Bid Adieu, My Sad Heart) by William Cowper
- On An Ugly Fellow (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On An Old Woman (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On An Infant (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A True Friend (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Thief (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Spaniel, Called Beau, Killing A Young Bird by William Cowper
- On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Plant Of Virgin’s-Bower, Designed To Cover A Garden-seat by William Cowper
- On A Mistake In His Translation Of Homer by William Cowper
- On A Miser (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Miser, 2 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Mischievous Bull, Which The Owner Him Sold At The Author’s Instance by William Cowper
- On A Good Man (From The Greek) by William Cowper
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