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:
- Epigram on Rough Roads by Robert Burns
- Statement of Being poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy
- The Seven Sages by William Butler Yeats
- Ode On Indolence poem – John Keats poems
- Smoke Off by Shel Silverstein
- Acon and Rhodope by Walter Savage Landor
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нам вчера прислали из рук вон плохую весть
- On The Civil War On The East Coast Of The United States Of North America 1860 64
- Николай Гумилев – Ключ в лесу
- Cake by Roger McGough
- Шекспир – Ты положи с моей любовью рядом – Сонет 117
- Farewell To Spring poem – Alfred Austin
- Busy Heart, The by Rupert Brooke
- Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney
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
- Night-Piece by Siegfried Sassoon
- Night on the Convoy by Siegfried Sassoon
- Morning-Land by Siegfried Sassoon
- Morning-Glory by Siegfried Sassoon
- Morning Express by Siegfried Sassoon
- Miracles by Siegfried Sassoon
- Middle-Ages by Siegfried Sassoon
- Memory by Siegfried Sassoon
- Memorial Tablet by Siegfried Sassoon
- Lovers by Siegfried Sassoon
- Limitations by Siegfried Sassoon
- Lamentations by Siegfried Sassoon
- Joy-Bells by Siegfried Sassoon
- Invocation by Siegfried Sassoon
- ‘In the Pink’ by Siegfried Sassoon
- In Me, Past, Present, Future meet by Siegfried Sassoon
- In Barracks by Siegfried Sassoon
- Idyll by Siegfried Sassoon
- I Stood With the Dead by Siegfried Sassoon
- How to Die by Siegfried Sassoon
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
