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:
- Иван Киуру – Песня моряка
- No Worst, There Is None. Pitched Past Pitch Of Grief poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- October by Siegfried Sassoon
- Алексей Ржевский – Рондо (И всякий так живет)
- Нина Воронель – Аэродром
- What am I, After All? by Walt Whitman
- Юлия Друнина – Бинты
- Poem by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Алексей Плещеев – Молчание
- On Your Midnight Pallet Lying poem – A. E. Housman
- Calm is all Nature as a Resting Wheel. by William Wordsworth
- A Farmhouse on the Wei River by Wang Wei
- O mother, O Merry by Nikunj Sharma
- Stars Over The Dordogne by Sylvia Plath
- Adam by Rainer Maria Rilke
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
- Poor Mailie’s Elegy by Robert Burns
- Poem on Sensibility by Robert Burns
- Pegasus at Wanlockhead by Robert Burns
- Paraphrase of the First Psalm by Robert Burns
- One Night as I did Wander by Robert Burns
- On the late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations by Robert Burns
- On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq., of Arniston by Robert Burns
- On the Death of John M’Leod, Esq. by Robert Burns
- On the Birth of a Posthumous Child by Robert Burns
- On Tam the Chapman by Robert Burns
- On seeing Mrs. Kemble in Yarico by Robert Burns
- On Scaring some Water-Fowl in Lock Turit by Robert Burns
- On Glenriddell’s Fox breaking his chain: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- On Elphinstone’s Translation of Martial’s Epigrams by Robert Burns
- On Chloris requesting a sprig of blossom’d thorn by Robert Burns
- Oh Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast by Robert Burns
- Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive by Robert Burns
- Ode on the Departed Regency Bill by Robert Burns
- Ode for General Washington’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- Note to Mr. Renton of Lamerton by Robert Burns
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
