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:
- Anniversaries poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Языков – Подражание псалму XIV
- Rimini by Rudyard Kipling
- An Indian Summer Day on the Prarie by Vachel Lindsay
- Olney Hymn 45: The Happy Change by William Cowper
- Modest Sounds by Michael Brandon Odom
- Glory Of Women by Siegfried Sassoon
- Myfanwy poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Wicked Postman by Rabindranath Tagore
- 9 Types of Lovers – The Twisted Version
- Germs. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: The Posie :
- The Mocking Fairy by Walter de la Mare
- Jones’s Porvate Argyment by Sidney Lanier
- Yours & Mine poem – Alice Fulton
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
- Taita Falcon above the Zambezi by Tom Mukasa
- Steeds of Autumn by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Sorry by Tom Mukasa
- Ribbons & Pearls by Timothy Cole
- Racial Memories of a Chickadee by Todd H. C. Fischer
- My Miracle Valentine by Tirtha Raj Baral (Sanu Punatare)
- Mother’s Day, 1993 by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Mother Earth; Her Beauty And Her Destruction by TMBedell
- Manifestations by Tom Shea
- Love’s Divinest Power by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- In Token Of The Love You Gave by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Imbrium by Todd H. C. Fischer
- I Make My bed Of Roses by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Gentle Heart, Indulge Thy Dreaming by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Edgar Allan Poe by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Cenotaph, Manitoulin Island by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Beyond The Veil by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- And Still to USA they get! by Tom Mukasa
- Walls at Drogheda by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- The Death of Knowledge by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
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
