Exiles
by Marilyn Hacker
Her brown falcon perches above the sink
as steaming water forks over my hands.
Below the wrists they shrivel and turn pink.
I am in exile in my own land.
Her half-grown cats scuffle across the floor
trailing a slime of blood from where they fed.
I lock the door. They claw under the door.
I am an exile in my own bed.
Her spotted mongrel, bristling with red mange,
sleeps on the threshold of the Third Street bar
where I drink brandy as the couples change.
I am in exile where my neighbors are.
On the pavement, cans of ashes burn.
Her green lizard scuttles from the light
around torn cardboard charred to glowing fern.
I am in exile in my own sight.
Her blond child sits on the stoop when I come
back at night. Cold hands, blue lids; we both
need sleep. She tells me she is going to die.
I am in exile in my own youth.
Lady of distances, this fire, this water,
this earth makes sanctuary where I stand.
Call of your animals and your blond daughter,
I am in exile in my own hands.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Arabia by Walter de la Mare
- Aunt Jennifer039s Tigers
- Pity by Sara Teasdale
- Midsummer Mobile by Sylvia Plath
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи к портрету И.И. Дмитриева (Министр, поэт и друг)
- Marsh Hymns by Sidney Lanier
- Human Instrument by Victoria Bukofske
- Burns’s Statue At Irvine poem – Alfred Austin
- An Irish Airman Forsees His Death by William Butler Yeats
- To Him that was Crucified. by Walt Whitman
- The May-Tree by William Barnes
- Devils poem – Alexander Pushkin
- The Self We Share by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Robert Burns: The Mauchline Lady: Fragment
- Аля Кудряшева – Тишина
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).