Malaria

He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh,

Red oleanders twisted in His hair,

His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh,

Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare.

The green and stagnant waters lick His feet,

And from their filmy, iridescent scum

Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat,

Rise with His gifts: Death and Delirium.

His messengers: They bear the deadly taint

On spangled wings aloft and far away,

Making thin music, strident and yet faint,

From golden eve to silver break of day.

The baffled sleeper hears th’ incessant whine

Through his tormented dreams, and finds no rest

The thirsty insects use his blood for wine,

Probe his blue veins and pasture on his breast.

While far away He in the marshes lies,

Staining the stagnant water with His breath,

An endless hunger burning in His eyes,

A famine unassuaged, whose food is Death.

He hides among the ghostly mists that float

Over the water, weird and white and chill,

And peasants, passing in their laden boat,

Shiver and feel a sense of coming ill.

A thousand burn and die; He takes no heed,

Their bones, unburied, strewn upon the plain,

Only increase the frenzy of His greed

To add more victims to th’ already slain.

He loves the haggard frame, the shattered mind,

Gloats with delight upon the glazing eye,

Yet, in one thing, His cruelty is kind,

He sends them lovely dreams before they die;

Dreams that bestow on them their heart’s desire,

Visions that find them mad, and leave them blest,

To sink, forgetful of the fever’s fire,

Softly, as in a lover’s arms, to rest.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Beast and Man in India by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Army Headquarters by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Anchor Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• An Old Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• An Imperial Rescript by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• An American by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Truthful Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Tree Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Three-Part Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Tale of Two Cities by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Song of Travel by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Song of the White Men by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Song of Kabir by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Song In Storm by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• A Song at Cock-Crow by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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.

 

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The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works