The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly.
They moisten their lips with their tongues. I can feel
them urging me on. I hold the baby in the air.
Heaps of broken bottles glitter in the sun.
A small band is playing old fashioned marches.
My mother is keeping time by stamping her foot.
My father is kissing a woman who keeps waving
to somebody else. There are palm trees.
The hills are spotted with orange flamboyants and tall
billowy clouds move beyond them. “Go on, Boy,”
I hear somebody say, “Go on.”
I keep wondering if it will rain.
The sky darkens. There is thunder.
“Break his legs,” says one of my aunts,
“Now give him a kiss.” I do what I’m told.
The trees bend in the bleak tropical wind.
The baby did not scream, but I remember that sigh
when I reached inside for his tiny lungs and shook them
out in the air for the flies. The relatives cheered.
It was about that time I gave up.
Now, when I answer the phone, his lips
are in the receiver; when I sleep, his hair is gathered
around a familiar face on the pillow; wherever I search
I find his feet. He is what is left of my life.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Чудом тени
- Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 4 by Robert Burns
- El Extraviado
- Historion poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Denouement Villanelle by Sylvia Plath
- A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
- Not Fear by Rafael Guillen
- A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices by Stephen Crane
- Haiku by Robby Charters
- The Mother Of God by William Butler Yeats
- Epigram Addressed to an Artist by Robert Burns
- “Goldie Pinklesweet…” by Roald Dahl
- Владимир Маяковский – Не вразброд, не случайно (Главполитпросвет)
- Robert Burns: The Jolly Beggars: A Cantata:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На море
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).
