Prison Song

A poem by Alan Dugan

The skin ripples over my body like moon-wooed water,

rearing to escape me. Where could it find another

animal as naked as the one it hates to cover?

Once it told me what was happening outside,

who was attacking, who caressing, and what the air

was doing to feed or freeze me. Now I wake up

dark at night, in a textureless ocean of ignorance,

or fruit bites back and water bruises like a stone.

It’s jealousy, because I look for other tools to know

with, and other armor, better girded to my wish.

So let it lie, turn off the clues or try to leave:

sewn on me seamless like those painful shirts

the body-hating saints wore, the sheath of hell

is pierced to my darkness nonetheless: what traitors

labor in my face, what hints they smuggle through

its arching guard! But even in the night it jails,

with nothing but its lies and silences to feed upon,

the jail itself can make a scenery, sing prison songs,

and set off fireworks to praise a homemade day.

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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 

• In Praise Of England poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Impromptu: To Frances Garnet Wolseley poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• If I To You But Sorry Bring poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• I Chide Not At The Seasons poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Farewell To Spring poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Golden Age poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• “The flower, full blown, now bends the stalk, now breaks” poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Fallen Elm poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Evening Light poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Dregs Of Love poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Door Of Humility poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Death Of Huss poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Dance At Darmstadt poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Challenge Answered poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• The Aquittal Of Phryne poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• “Take not the Gods to task, for they are wise” poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin
• Sweet Love Is Dead poem – Alfred Austin by Alfred Austin

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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