The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly.
They moisten their lips with their tongues. I can feel
them urging me on. I hold the baby in the air.
Heaps of broken bottles glitter in the sun.
A small band is playing old fashioned marches.
My mother is keeping time by stamping her foot.
My father is kissing a woman who keeps waving
to somebody else. There are palm trees.
The hills are spotted with orange flamboyants and tall
billowy clouds move beyond them. “Go on, Boy,”
I hear somebody say, “Go on.”
I keep wondering if it will rain.
The sky darkens. There is thunder.
“Break his legs,” says one of my aunts,
“Now give him a kiss.” I do what I’m told.
The trees bend in the bleak tropical wind.
The baby did not scream, but I remember that sigh
when I reached inside for his tiny lungs and shook them
out in the air for the flies. The relatives cheered.
It was about that time I gave up.
Now, when I answer the phone, his lips
are in the receiver; when I sleep, his hair is gathered
around a familiar face on the pillow; wherever I search
I find his feet. He is what is left of my life.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- In The Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
- On The Death Of A Fair Infant Dying Of A Cough poem – John Milton poems
- Where Are You?
- Николай Заболоцкий – Лесная сторожка
- Robert Burns: The Bonie Moor-Hen:
- The Rose by William Browne
- Николай Языков – Валдайский узник
- English Poetry. Philip James Bailey. Festus – 29. Филип Джеймс Бэйли.
- music.html
- The Gardener XXXVIII: My Love, Once upon a Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Олег Бундур – Настроение
- Allegro Maestoso by William Ernest Henley
- Sonnet X. To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent poem – John Keats poems
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нынче мне не до улыбок
- To A Castillan Song by Sara Teasdale
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
