by Ai
We smile at each other
and I lean back against the wicker couch.
How does it feel to be dead? I say.
You touch my knees with your blue fingers.
And when you open your mouth,
a ball of yellow light falls to the floor
and burns a hole through it.
Don’t tell me, I say. I don’t want to hear.
Did you ever, you start,
wear a certain kind of dress
and just by accident,
so inconsequential you barely notice it,
your fingers graze that dress
and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,
you see it too
and you realize how that image
is simply the extension of another image,
that your own life
is a chain of words
that one day will snap.
Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,
and beginning to rise heavenward
in their confirmation dresses,
like white helium balloons,
the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,
and above all that,
that’s where I’m floating,
and that’s what it’s like
only ten times clearer,
ten times more horrible.
Could anyone alive survive it?

A few random poems:
- What The Doctor Said by Raymond Carver
- Twilight poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Зинаида Александрова – Ромашки
- Old Deuteronomy by T. S. Eliot
- Champagne 1914 15
- Lucky by Thomas Lux
- … and the moon was sleeping by Steve Troyanovich
- Joy-Bells by Siegfried Sassoon
- Sunk Lyonesse by Walter de la Mare
- the_holy_tree.html
- Михаил Кузмин – Врезанные в песок заливы
- Control by Sidney Lanier
- Eloisa to Abelard poem – Alexander Pope
- Dirge of the Three Queens by William Shakespeare
- Dog’s love by Vinko Kalinić
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
- Mule Song poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- In Memoriam Mae Noblitt poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Identity poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Hymn poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Gravelly Run poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Eyesight poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Design poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Crowride poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Called Into Play poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- An Improvisation For Angular Momentum poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- After Yesterday poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Sunday Morning Blues poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- I Kiss the Feet of Angels poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Grand Slam Night poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Father Divine poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Sunday Morning Blues poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- I Kiss the Feet of Angels poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Grand Slam Night poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Father Divine poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Was Then by AC Zenner
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