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
- Expectations by Pamela Griffiths
- Юлия Друнина – Другу
- Как просто было в юности
- There is a Way by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Владимир Маяковский – Стой!.. (РОСТА №416)
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Все люди
- The Licorice Fields at Pontefract poem – John Betjeman poems
- Игорь Северянин – Шутливая рондель
- Степан Щипачев – Атака
- Dawned Again
- Literary Cubism – A Non-Structured Structure For Twenty-first Century Storytelling
- In Salutation to the Eternal Peace by Sarojini Naidu
- To the Rev. Dr. Thomas Amory by Phillis Wheatley
- Олег Бундур – Папа возмущается
- Яков Полонский – После праздника
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).
