I watched the froth go down and the yellow liquid rise to meet it. I twisted the glass around and it tipped over and spilled on his arthritic knee. I looked to the side and didn’t apologize. His beautiful bony fingers flicked off the foam in separate particles as if it was incidental lint he had finally noticed.
The decision is yours now.
He rubbed the liquid into his pant leg. I sighed. Either decision I make will kill something.
And so, you want to hang in this ether land forever?
Yes.
And if I pulled your hair?
And if I scalded your mouth?
And if I made a teepee of birch billets with you in the centre?
Look at me.
No.
He went away.
Next night the phone rang.
I’ll meet you at Glacier and First Point. You must be exact.
I’ll be there for three evenings.
For three nights I wore myself ragged but couldn’t find where.
Friday evening the doorbell rang. He handed me two books by Aksel Sandemose. I put my fingers exactly where his warm fingerprints still lingered on the top book and closed the door. I read and waited.
(There was a tidal wave and a woman went from window to window with a candle in her hand as her house floated out the bay. They rescued her in St. Lawrence.)
When you are ready, if ever, light your own candle.
Two years later, my hand shook as I held the match. His hair had greyed around the temples and he crippled shyly.
Five years later, two babies look hauntingly like him. He is chopping wood in the backyard. He stops.
Look at me. I fooled you years ago. Glacier is in Iceland and I tore out all the pages where it was written in that book. Do you regret that we called the babies Abstract and Zero? Come feel Aunt Hilda and Didymus under my fingernails.
His gentle laugh ripped the night sky, and I got pregnant again.
Copyright ©:
Agnes Walsh
A few random poems:
- There Came a Soul by Rita Dove
- Юлия Друнина – Я не привыкла
- Robert Burns Country: O Tibbie, I Hae Seen The Day:
- Robert Burns: Song Composed In August:
- The Coin by Sara Teasdale
- A Snow-White Lily poem – Alfred Austin
- Sea Shell poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- what I want to know by Raj Arumugam
- Владимир Данько – Верхом на палочке
- The Old Land And The Young Land poem – Alfred Austin
- The Evening Light poem – Alfred Austin
- Kinetic Poem 2 by Roger McGough
- Son Of A Scoundrel by Shel Silverstein
- Олег Бундур – А мне-то ничего
- Be there for me by Tanisha Avarsekar
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
- Woken Up By Beautiful Dreams
- The Poet Angels Who Came To Dinner
- The Nomad039s Vision Ode To A Skylark Dressed In Black
- The Man That Poetry Made
- Power Of Thought
- Once Was A Singer For God Remembering Nekia
- My Aroma
- Lost Love Is Never Lost
- Holiday Letter For A Poet Gone To War
- Gratitudes Of A Dozen Roses
- Every Hour Henceforth
- Cell Mate
- Calling The Spirits
- Angel Of Christmas Love Shining Bright
- Angel Of Better Days To Come
- All Night In Savannah The Wind Wrote Poetry
- The Solitary Oak On Mount Kremlin Bicetre
- The Prison Of The Past
- The Dead Woman
- Pathos Is The Skyward Tanka
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
