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:
- Live With Me On Earth Under the Invisible Daylight Moon by Milton Acorn
- Джон Мильтон – Новым гонителям свободы
- Николай Глазков – Без поражений нет побед
- Metaphysical View by Satish Verma
- A Lesson In Vengeance by Sylvia Plath
- Despair by Samuel Coleridge
- In a Minor Key poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Our Soul’s Gestation
- Владимир Коркин – Август дозреет яблоком
- Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV, To Richard Boyle, poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Prayer For Lightning poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- life on the escalator by Raj Arumugam
- Вера Полозкова – Францу Кафке
- Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish Novelists by William Butler Yeats
- Base Details by Siegfried Sassoon
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
- O, Were I Loved As I Desire To Be! poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- O Beauty, Passing Beauty! poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Northern Farmer: New Style poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Move Eastward, Happy Earth poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Morte D’Arthur poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Minnie and Winnie poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Milton (Alcaics) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 72. Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 67. When on my bed the moonlight fall poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 44. How fares it with the happy dead? poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Mariana In The South poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Mariana poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Lucretius poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Locksley Hall poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Lilian poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Late, Late, So Late poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Lady Clare poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In the Valley of Cauteretz poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam A. HIn Memoriam A. H. H.: 56. So careful of the type? but no.: 55. The wish, that of the living whol 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
