I watched the froth go down and the yellow liquid rise to meet it. I twisted the glass around and it tipped over and spilled on his arthritic knee. I looked to the side and didn’t apologize. His beautiful bony fingers flicked off the foam in separate particles as if it was incidental lint he had finally noticed.
The decision is yours now.
He rubbed the liquid into his pant leg. I sighed. Either decision I make will kill something.
And so, you want to hang in this ether land forever?
Yes.
And if I pulled your hair?
And if I scalded your mouth?
And if I made a teepee of birch billets with you in the centre?
Look at me.
No.
He went away.
Next night the phone rang.
I’ll meet you at Glacier and First Point. You must be exact.
I’ll be there for three evenings.
For three nights I wore myself ragged but couldn’t find where.
Friday evening the doorbell rang. He handed me two books by Aksel Sandemose. I put my fingers exactly where his warm fingerprints still lingered on the top book and closed the door. I read and waited.
(There was a tidal wave and a woman went from window to window with a candle in her hand as her house floated out the bay. They rescued her in St. Lawrence.)
When you are ready, if ever, light your own candle.
Two years later, my hand shook as I held the match. His hair had greyed around the temples and he crippled shyly.
Five years later, two babies look hauntingly like him. He is chopping wood in the backyard. He stops.
Look at me. I fooled you years ago. Glacier is in Iceland and I tore out all the pages where it was written in that book. Do you regret that we called the babies Abstract and Zero? Come feel Aunt Hilda and Didymus under my fingernails.
His gentle laugh ripped the night sky, and I got pregnant again.
Copyright ©:
Agnes Walsh
A few random poems:
- flight_of_stairs.html
- Prayer For A Profusion Of Sunflowers poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The New Church Organ by Will McKendree Carleton
- Life Of a Broke Person by Russell James
- My teacher wasn’t half as nice as yours seems to be by Roald Dahl
- An Epistle to A Friend
- Animal Tranquility And Decay by William Wordsworth
- Written In Juice Of Lemon
- Cavalry Crossing a Ford. by Walt Whitman
- Canto XIII poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Robert Burns: Inscription For An Altar Of Independence: At Kerroughtree, the Seat of Mr. Heron.
- Илья Зданевич – Галоша
- Эмиль Верхарн – Завершение
- The Forsaken by William Wordsworth
- Address to His Elbow-Chair, New Cloath’d, An by William Somervile
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
- The most noble bird, wife by Mukeshkumar Raval
- The Morning Breeze by Mousumi Guha Roy
- The ME inside by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- The Labour by Mousumi Guha Roy
- The Drum-Stick Tree by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- the branches of pine tree by Mousumi Guha Roy
- The Beyond by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Sting by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Snake Pit by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Six-Word Poem by Monty Gilmer
- Rain all along by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Poem by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Poem by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Parody on a Haiku by Issa by Monty Gilmer
- No Regrets by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- My Mother by Claude McKay
- My impure god and I by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- My Dear Old Mother by Walter William Safar
- Mother by Shahida Latif
- Lost and Found by Muralidharan Mudaliar
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
