by Ainne Frances dela Cruz
In dark girls I see your skin. The lines of veins delicately whispering on the underside of your arms. The graceful motion of your fingers, how you always seemed on air, entrapped with wings; you who only had to rise to fly.
I, in another time, I see you. Dark of night, and dead weights, as everything must be to your ancient body. Yet, I love this of you. Even the headiness of the scent of entrails rushing after you, slapping on my hair, and I am left, matted and bloodied. And my heart left matted and bloodied.
I see now, you wanted to eat my heart. Dark blood pulsing through arteries. Transparency? Doesn’t my skin scream my love? Yes, my heart is yours. You only had to ask.
Do you remember Chinese water torture? One drop a minute to a prisoner would seem like an eternity of waiting for the deluge. And this, your wings rushing through light, beating through my ears like bats, high-pitched, tortures me. Wanting to get through your skin, carried away on your nails. Wanting to be you, dark as flight, as flight is, to one land-bound.
I am bound to one who flits from transparency, to a land opaque, where feelings must darken, and become murky. From water to blood, from oxygen to air so thin and pure, I have trouble breathing. But this is what we come to in the end, isn’t it? You have clutched me so tightly that I can let go and fall, but always find myself in your talons. The nails curved inwardly, my stomach heaves.
To become one, to be so close that the skin you hold is my skin, that when I look through the dark, I can see you. To hold me as if I was in you, your skin, your blood, my blood, one. This is what you do best, isn’t it? Touch things about to vanish. In your eyes I see myself. Will you see me always this way? Lips stained with your blood, fingers gripping your wings.
Do you want to fly? you asked. I nodded. Then close your eyes. The first bite, the first tear at my skin does feel like weightlessness. Levitation, blood escaping from me, finally free, skin to skin, and body to body. No longer heavy. You carried me forever. You don’t have to do so now.
I can fly.
Paper Monster Press Dream Pop Issue
Copyright ©:
2011
A few random poems:
- Валерий Брюсов – Песня девушки в тайге
- The Woman In The Rye by Thomas Hardy
- Ольга Седакова – Московские картинки
- Жан де Лафонтен – Безумец и Мудрец
- Robert Burns: Sweet Tibbie Dunbar:
- Free Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Владимир Маяковский – Только организация урожай умножит… (Главполитпросвет №33)
- Mine Sweepers by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Британишский – Этот вечер
- Entropy by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- A Promise to California. by Walt Whitman
- The Last Whisper by Nizar Sartawi
- Bad News by William Barnes
- English Poetry. Thomas Aird. The Devil’s Dream on Mount Aksbeck. Томас Эрд.
- Closing by William Butler Yeats
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
- Spenserian Stanzas On Charles Armitage Brown poem – John Keats poems
- Spenserian Stanza. Written At The Close Of Canto II, Book V, Of “The Faerie Queene” poem – John Keats poems
- Specimen Of An Induction To A Poem poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XVII. Happy Is England poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XVI. To Kosciusko poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XV. On The Grasshopper And Cricket poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XIV. Addressed To The Same (Haydon) poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet X. To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XIII. Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XII. On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet XI. On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Written Upon The Top Of Ben Nevis poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Written On A Blank Space At The End Of Chaucer’s Tale Of ‘The Floure And The Lefe’ poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Written On A Blank Page In Shakespeare’s Poems, Facing ‘A Lover’s Complaint’ poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Written In Disgust Of Vulgar Superstition poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Written In Answer To A Sonnet By J. H. Reynolds poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Written Before Re-Read King Lear poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet. Why Did I Laugh Tonight? poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet: When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet VIII. To My Brothers poem – John Keats poems
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