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:
- Do You Know What Its Like
- Comus poem – John Milton poems
- Chi È? poem – Alfred Austin
- Sonnet III by William Shakespeare
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (Куда так проворно, жидовка младая)
- The Human Tragedy ACT IV poem – Alfred Austin
- Валерий Брюсов – Испанская песенка
- Юнна Мориц – Попрыгать-поиграть
- Ageing Schoolmaster by Vernon Scannell
- We’re Late by W H Auden
- Power Of Love by Valentine Mbagu
- The Storm
- The Buried Train by Robert Bly
- The Woman And The Flame
- Омар Хайям – Египет, Рим, Китай держи ты под пятой
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
- A Wasted Illness by Thomas Hardy
- A Thunderstorm In Town by Thomas Hardy
- A Jog-Trot Pair by Thomas Hardy
- A Dream Or No by Thomas Hardy
- Ye Mariners of England by Thomas Campbell
- To the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell
- The Last Man by Thomas Campbell
- The Dirge of Wallace by Thomas Campbell
- The Battle of the Baltic by Thomas Campbell
- Song to the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell
- Ode to Winter by Thomas Campbell
- Ode to the Memory of Burns by Thomas Campbell
- Love And Madness by Thomas Campbell
- Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Thomas Campbell
- Hohenlinden by Thomas Campbell
- Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell
- Freedom And Love by Thomas Campbell
- Benlomond by Thomas Campbell
- Adelgitha by Thomas Campbell
- The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton
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