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:
- Epitaph on a Tyrant by W. H. Auden
- The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- Sonnet To A Young Lady On Her Birth-Day by William Cowper
- Олег Бундур – Вопросы
- Ode–Shell The Old City! Shell! by William Gilmore Simms
- Life, wait for me by Martin Zakovski
- Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days by Ted Hughes
- Long I Thought that Knowledge. by Walt Whitman
- Олег Григорьев – Пьет оса кисель из чашки
- The Bells Ov Alderburnham by William Barnes
- Алексей Ржевский – Как я стал знать взор твой
- Crows and Hawks by Richard Schiffman
- Юлия Друнина – Жизнь моя не катилась
- Robert Burns: Sweet Afton :
- Николай Гумилев – Он воздвигнул свой храм на горе
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
- Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Ring Out Your Bells by Sir Philip Sidney
- Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney
- Philomela by Sir Philip Sidney
- Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show by Sir Philip Sidney
- Leave Me, O Love Which Reachest But To Dust by Sir Philip Sidney
- Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XLI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XCII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet XXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella; Sonnet CVIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella LXXXIV: HIGHWAY by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: LXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: LXIV by Sir Philip Sidney
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