by Alden Nowlan
Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain,
lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar,
stumbling through tamarack swamps,
came the bull moose
to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture.
Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware
there was no place left to go, he stood with the cattle.
They, scenting the musk of death, seeing his great head
like the ritual mask of a blood god, moved to the other end
of the field, and waited.
The neighbours heard of it, and by afternoon
cars lined the road. The children teased him
with alder switches and he gazed at them
like an old, tolerant collie. The woman asked
if he could have escaped from a Fair.
The oldest man in the parish remembered seeing
a gelded moose yoked with an ox for plowing.
The young men snickered and tried to pour beer
down his throat, while their girl friends took their pictures.
And the bull moose let them stroke his tick-ravaged flanks,
let them pry open his jaws with bottles, let a giggling girl
plant a little purple cap
of thistles on his head.
When the wardens came, everyone agreed it was a shame
to shoot anything so shaggy and cuddlesome.
He looked like the kind of pet
women put to bed with their sons.
So they held their fire. But just as the sun dropped in the river
the bull moose gathered his strength
like a scaffolded king, straightened and lifted his horns
so that even the wardens backed away as they raised their rifles.
When he roared, people ran to their cars. All the young men
leaned on their automobile horns as he toppled.

A few random poems:
- Владимир Маяковский – За четыре года советской власти… (Главполитпросвет №248)
- Владимир Костров – У них в делах анархия и жуть
- He Thinks Of Those Who Have Spoken Evil Of His Beloved by William Butler Yeats
- Into My Heart an Air that Kills poem – A. E. Housman
- Andante Con Moto by William Ernest Henley
- Вера Павлова – Отпала от пола
- Love, Romance, Relationship: Some Poetic Scenes!
- Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant
- Владимир Корнилов – Погодинка
- I’ve dreamt of dreaming ’bout you by Vinko Kalinić
- tomorrow is already past… by Steve Troyanovich
- A Choka Is A Littoral Drift
- Олег Бундур – Зимнее утро
- The Stars Are Mansions Built By Nature’s Hand by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: Lassie Wi’ The Lint-White Locks:
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
- Bubblin’ Up by Shel Silverstein
- Bituminous? by Shel Silverstein
- Bigtime by Shel Silverstein
- Better Not Ask Me by Shel Silverstein
- Whatif by Shel Silverstein
- Weird-Bird by Shel Silverstein
- The Toucan by Shel Silverstein
- The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt by Shel Silverstein
- Rain by Shel Silverstein
- Rain by Shel Silverstein
- Picture Puzzle Piece by Shel Silverstein
- One Inch Tall by Shel Silverstein
- It’s Dark in Here by Shel Silverstein
- God’s Wheel by Shel Silverstein
- Forgotten Language by Shel Silverstein
- Danny O’Dare by Shel Silverstein
- Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein
- Beans Taste Fine by Shel Silverstein
- Batty by Shel Silverstein
- Ations by Shel Silverstein
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