Because today is his birthday, and mine too.

[elsabeta.livejournal.com]

"Everyone Sang," by Siegfried Sassoon

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on—on—and out of sight.
 
Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

(no subject)

[iamkatia.livejournal.com]

The Belly Dancer in the Nursing Home

The crazy ladies are singing again,
clapping their hands and gums to the music,
dancing their wheelchairs to and fro
with a frail and bony toe.
In the front row, some old men,
flushed with the heat of the season,
are thumping their tuneless canes and stumps,
driving old age and infirmity
out of the room like an unwanted guest.
Meanwhile, the belly dancer,
all sweat and sequins, muscles and skin,
ripples and pumps,
her skimpy metallic costume slipping
beneath her secret hair,
until even my father, slumped in his chair,
lifts his voice and quickens:
Goddamn! he sings. Look there!
Until we're all dancing and singing,
hips, breasts, and heads ringing
the immodest, unlikely air,
until the performance is over.
The women stiffen into their chairs;
the men lean back on their silence;
and my father folds up as in prayer,
with just enough breath left to whisper.
And sing. And dance. And swear.


Ronald Wallace

Anne Marple

[ghostofchance.livejournal.com]

THE HUNGRY WIDOW

Sex ceases to be spontaneous
in this Age of Aids
but there are compensations
and time to prepare
and you need it if you've
been sharing your bedroom
with an incontinent cat as I have
and you're almost sixty-five
and don't lubricate as you once did
and the handsome-hunk housepainter
who's fifty at the most
and the object of masturbatory
fantasies all spring
drops in to tell me
he'd seen my breasts one morning
when my pegnoir gaped and he wants me
but his brother's in the car
so he'd like to make love to me Saturday.
I would like that too I say.
After a few tentative kisses and groping
that don't live up to my fantasies
he goes away and I start preparing.

I went to the pet store and bought
a deodorizer for cat urine
and shampooed my rug.


( Read more... )

O Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast

[onyxblue1.livejournal.com]

O wert thou in the cauld blast,
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee;
Or did Misfortune's bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy bield should be my bosom,
To share it a', to share it a'.

Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a Paradise,
If thou wert there, if thou wert there;
Or were I Monarch o' the globe,
Wi' thee to reign, wi' thee to reign,
The brightest jewel in my Crown
Wad be my Queen, wad be my Queen.

Robert Burns

(no subject)

[agata.livejournal.com]

Sara Teasdale

Advice to a Girl

No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed;
Lay that on your heart,
My young angry dear;
This truth, this hard and precious stone,
Lay it on your hot cheek,
Let it hide your tear.
Hold it like a crystal
When you are alone
And gaze in the depths of the icy stone.
Long, look long and you will be blessed:
No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed.