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:
- Robert Burns: Monody: On a lady famed for her Caprice.
- XIV: Some Verses: To Mr. Edward Allane by William Alexander
- Motel Pool by P. K. Page
- Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 1 by William Somervile
- Владимир Маяковский – Чемпионат всемирной классовой борьбы
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- The Hut
- Омар Хайям – Что я дружу с вином, не отрицаю, нет
- Николай Гумилев – Лаос
- A Toast To Nations
- Аля Кудряшева – Пой мне еще, что я могу изменить
- On A Celebrated Event In Ancient History by William Wordsworth
- Олег Сердобольский – Пришли цыплята в первый класс
- Epigram at Brownhill Inn by Robert Burns
- Farewell To Spring poem – Alfred Austin
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
- Ten Years After by Graham Rowlands
- Telescopes In The Square by Graham Rowlands
- South Africa by Ronald G. Auguste
- Shattered Dreams. Broken Promises. by Russell James
- Savour Your Life by Ronald G. Auguste
- Rosslyn To The Prime Minister by Graham Rowlands
- Writing to Onegin by Ruth Padel
- Icicles round a Tree in Dumfriesshire by Ruth Padel
- Conqueror by Russell Hughes Ragsdale
- Conversation 4: On Place by Rosmarie Waldrop
- To A Young Lady. On Her Recovery From A Fever by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Written In Early Youth. The Time,–An Autumnal Evening by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Fire, Famine, And Slaughter : A War Eclogue by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Fancy In Nubibus, Or The Poet In The Clouds by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Epitaph On An Infant. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- What would I do without this world by Samuel Beckett
- Cascando by Samuel Beckett
- To a Commencement of Scoundrels by Samuel Hazo
- The Nearness That Is All by Samuel Hazo
- The Middle of the World by Samuel Hazo
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
