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:
- On a Certain Lady at Court poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Not even a child by Miles
- Our Abode In Arby Wood by William Barnes
- Николай Тихонов – Когда уйду
- St. Winefred’s Well poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Ольга Берггольц – Ласточки над обрывом
- Alone by Yvor Winters
- Song—Auld Rob Morris by Robert Burns
- Psalm 86 poem – John Milton poems
- Dinner Date by P.J.Reed
- The Hosts
- Михаил Лермонтов – Звуки и взор
- O Sing, Fair Lady, When With Me poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Decision
- Sonet 39 by William Alexander
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
- Effrontery by Satish Verma
- Earthly Wounds by Satish Verma
- Drift Wood by Satish Verma
- Dream Landing by Satish Verma
- DOWNHILL JOURNEY by Satish Verma
- Doom’s Day by Satish Verma
- Discretion by Satish Verma
- Delinquency by Satish Verma
- Death In Exile by Satish Verma
- DEATH AND VISION by Satish Verma
- Cult of Lynching by Satish Verma
- Crowding by Satish Verma
- CROSSING THE DEAF by Satish Verma
- Courting Fidelity by Satish Verma
- Contraptions by Satish Verma
- Confessional Hurt by Satish Verma
- Commerce by Satish Verma
- Collecting Milkweed by Satish Verma
- BRAMBLE GATES by Satish Verma
- Botanically by Satish Verma
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
