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 Британишский – Дом, как бог
- Up The Line by Will McKendree Carleton
- Николай Гербель – Меня преследует какой-то демон злой
- In Due Observance Of An Ancient Rite by William Wordsworth
- “Brave Schill! By Death Delivered” by William Wordsworth
- One Inch Tall by Shel Silverstein
- Fleckno, an English Priest at Rome poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- The Twelve poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Sonnet 07
- Низами Гянджеви – Ради встречи с тобой я до края земли дошел
- Rhyme by Sylvia Plath
- Under Cover of Night by Robert Desnos
- Юлия Друнина – В сорок пятом
- What a beautiful world by Vladimir Marku
- Because We Never Practiced With The Escape Chamber poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
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
- Give Me Back My Rags #12 by Vasko Popa
- The Prisoners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- The Craftsmen Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Before The Game by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #1 by Vasko Popa
- The Benefactors Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- The Enemies Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Hide-And-Seek by Vasko Popa
- The Owners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Race by Vasko Popa
- In The Village Of My Ancestors by Vasko Popa
- Last News About The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Give Me Back My Rags by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #5 by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #4 by Vasko Popa
- A Forgetful Number by Vasko Popa
- A Conceited Mistake by Vasko Popa
- Words – “My only friends forever” by Vasishta Sharma Gudi
- Winter Wind by Vasil Slavov
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