by Agha Shahid Ali
First, grant me my sense of history:
I did it for posterity,
for kindergarten teachers
and a clear moral:
Little girls shouldn’t wander off
in search of strange flowers,
and they mustn’t speak to strangers.
And then grant me my generous sense of plot:
Couldn’t I have gobbled her up
right there in the jungle?
Why did I ask her where her grandma lived?
As if I, a forest-dweller,
didn’t know of the cottage
under the three oak trees
and the old woman lived there
all alone?
As if I couldn’t have swallowed her years before?
And you may call me the Big Bad Wolf,
now my only reputation.
But I was no child-molester
though you’ll agree she was pretty.
And the huntsman:
Was I sleeping while he snipped
my thick black fur
and filled me with garbage and stones?
I ran with that weight and fell down,
simply so children could laugh
at the noise of the stones
cutting through my belly,
at the garbage spilling out
with a perfect sense of timing,
just when the tale
should have come to an end.
A Walk Through the Yellow Pages
Copyright ©:
1987, SUN-Gemini Press
A few random poems:
- II. The Pauper Witch of Grafton by Robert Frost
- The Parrot by William Cowper
- The sky has never seen such a moon
- Lamia. Part II poem – John Keats poems
- Омар Хайям – И сиянье рая, и ада огни
- A Rare Guest poem – Alfred Austin
- Кондратий Рылеев – Гусь и змия
- An Appointment by William Butler Yeats
- Come, Rest in this Bosom by Thomas Moore
- Cornish Cliffs poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Маяковский – Смотри, чтоб праздник перешел и в будни
- The Shepherd O’ The Farm by William Barnes
- Till I Wake
- Шарль Бодлер – Жажда небытия
- Robert Burns: A Poet’s Welcome To His Love-Begotten Daughter: The First Instance That Entitled Him To The Venerable Appellation Of Father
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
- Demeter And Persephone poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Dedication poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Cradle Song poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Come not when I am dead poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Come Into The Garden, Maud poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Come Into the Garde, Maud poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Come down, O Maid poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Claribel: A Melody poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Claribel poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- by_an_evolutionist.html
- Break, Break, Break poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Boadicea poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Blow, Bugle, Blow poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Beautiful City poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Battle Of Brunanburgh poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Balin and Balan poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Audley Court poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Ask Me No More poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- And ask ye why these sad tears stream? poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Amphion poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson 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
