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:
- Eyes And Tears poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Cavalier Tunes: Marching Along by Robert Browning
- Robert Burns: A Tippling Ballad: On the Duke of Brunswick’s Breaking up his Camp, and the defeat of the Austrians, by Dumourier, November 1792.
- March Evening poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Mortal Words by Robert McNamara
- City of My Childhood
- Look Down, Fair Moon. by Walt Whitman
- Boo to Buddha poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Epitaph On A Free But Tame Redbreast, A Favourite Of Miss Sally Hurdis by William Cowper
- Insolent couplets
- Far Pitched Tents: Poems of War by Michael Nikoletseas
- Эмиль Верхарн – Восстание
- Church And State by William Butler Yeats
- Proactive Responses to Recession – 7 Creative Ways to Make Extra Money With Real Estate
- empty_room.html
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
- Twenty-Four Hokku On A Modern Theme poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Towns in Colour poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To-Morrow To Fresh Woods And Pastures New poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To A Husband poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Swans poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Starling poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Pond poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Poet poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Letter poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Great Adventure Of Max Breuck poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Garden By Moonlight poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Dinner-Party poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Cremona Violin poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Country House poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Artist poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Prayer For Lightning poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Prayer For A Profusion Of Sunflowers poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Orange Of Midsummer poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
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
