Said I shouldn’t.
Fingering me.
Everything I did.
A litter of chewed knucklebones
I’ve spread them out over the
rectangular floor as regularly as
I can; so I can account for them.
Her hands are crossed over
her breasts and each holds
a feather; her face has no features
Have I come to beg
What do I wish — to be
judged?
Is it an accumulation
of what I’ve said, that
counts, that I’m counting
is it all alphabet and abacus
everything rhymed?
You still don’t have a face.
Suddenly she has the face of a
cat.
No that’s a different
goddess.
I tell you this
bloodthirsty
jaguar…
I don’t have any idea what my word is, I
mean fault. Is it a word or an act. The
whole thrill is ripping me apart
Inside these
words there’s nothing but a pumping
bloodsoaked…
but clearly, everything I said, did,
was a long shot
We didn’t hear a word
What have you ever heard?
Now I’m here — black-caped in a
chair. Animal staring at me
I sink into your disaffected
ambiance to name.
What emotional
charges
have been laid on me from
earliest times
and my own
earliest
resulting in the bone strewn carpet
I had to grow the dice
of accounting to your love; for
you made me speak to you
lovingly; or did I do that naturally
oh just, bloodthirsty face
who doesn’t have to understand.
I don’t know who I’m speaking to
is pushing me
Judgment maybe it’s when being
fragile I
hallucinate you best
I don’t want to use my name!
‘Where I was born we girls ran
free. and named ourselves,’
Justice says.
She may kill me,
it depends on whether she’s hungry
Copyright ©:
Alice Notley

A few random poems:
- Late Evening Song by Weldon Kees
- A Message To America
- Sonnet 148: O me! what eyes hath love put in my head by William Shakespeare
- Sandys Ghost ; A Proper Ballad on the New Ovid’s Metamorphosis poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Михаил Кузмин – Трое (Нас было трое)
- The Church An’ Happy Zunday by William Barnes
- The Passing of the Elder Bards by William Wordsworth
- In Honour of the City of London by William Dunbar
- You Can Have It by Philip Levine
- John Keats – John Keats Poems
- I saw Old General at Bay. by Walt Whitman
- Portals. by Walt Whitman
- Низами Гянджеви – Когда ты локоны свои распустишь
- Let me Roam by Penny Leigh Moller
- Spiritual Memories of Mother by Raj Napal
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
- The Human Tragedy ACT IV poem – Alfred Austin
- The Human Tragedy ACT III poem – Alfred Austin
- The Human Tragedy ACT II poem – Alfred Austin
- The Human Tragedy ACT I poem – Alfred Austin
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
- On Returning To England poem – Alfred Austin
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
- Nocturnal Vigils poem – Alfred Austin
- Nature And the Book poem – Alfred Austin
- Nature And the Book poem – Alfred Austin
- My Winter Rose poem – Alfred Austin
- “My soul is sunk in all–suffusing shame” poem – Alfred Austin
- “My northern blood exults to face” poem – Alfred Austin
- Mozart’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin
- Mozart’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin
- Messalina poem – Alfred Austin
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
- Mafeking poem – Alfred Austin
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