by Ainne Frances dela Cruz
In my old age,
my parents have decided
to give me space:
a room of my own
complete with a bed
and a view of the
woods beside our house.
As the body grows older
it grows inflexible, it seems
either that
or my bed is too hard
I can’t sleep nights.
My muscles involuntarily
curve to an imaginary space
you occupied
lifetimes ago.
I feel the strain of living
whenever my cheek touches
bedsheets, made rough-smooth
by the spin-dry cycle of
the washing-machine downstairs.
I open my windows
to the elements.
I laugh at the face
of cyclones.
There is no reason
to stay.
Why will I
miss this place?
THE LAB 7TH EDITION. Summer 2011, Cultural Arts & Theatre Society
Copyright ©:
2011

A few random poems:
- Baby’s World by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sappho to Phaon (Ovid Heroid XV) poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Know thy SELF by Neelam Sinha
- The Old House poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Conscious by Wilfred Owen
- Nothing Stays Put poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Shrike by Sylvia Plath
- Clarence by Shel Silverstein
- Anguish of Fate by Pierre Reverdy
- Николай Языков – Записки А. С. Дириной
- Cold by Witt Wittmann
- Broccoli by Rina Ferrarelli
- Surrounded
- The Frivolity of Dreaming by Mahi Chauhan
- A Different September by Steve Sant
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
- Never Sure Which You Are by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Important thing’s in life by Martin Smith
- Nestling by Mark R Slaughter
- Images by Mary Etta Metcalf
- My Words Embrace by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Illusions by Mark R Slaughter
- My Mother On An Evening In Late Summer by Mark Strand
- If Only by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Morning by Mark R Slaughter
- I, or Someone Like Me by Marvin Bell
- Mending Socks by Martin Willitts Jr.
- He Said To by Marvin Bell
- Grumpy Old Man by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Manure by Mark R Slaughter
- Giving Myself Up by Mark Strand
- Mammary Tunes by Mark R Slaughter
- Ghosts by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Lines For Winter by Mark Strand
- From The Long Sad Party by Mark Strand
- Life, wait for me by Martin Zakovski
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