Friday, October 07, 2011

The blood of a bat poem

The Blood of a Bat

Webbed wings wove
dark blankets
on the cave ceiling
sonic whispers echoed
through narrow tunnels
lantern light pierced the dark
hats covered our hair
hands and knees scraped and torn
pregnant woman's cave
spelunker's kindergarten
Ahead, daylight grins
Dracula's kiss

In China the bat symbolizes
longevity and happiness
Put in that, o put in that

italics from the witches in Macbeth

13 comments:

Robin said...

A lovely ode to one of my favourite creatures! Bats!
I adore them. (In fact, I think some of them are really cute!)
The *Flying Foxes* are wonderful...Bats have gotten a bad wrap - thanks to Dracula! In fact, they eat thousands of mosquitoes and other destructive insects nightly! And...they fertilise the Agave Plant....Tequila comes from that....so when you have your next Margarita - raise your glass to one of the *Creatures of the Night*!

Suki, you are getting into full Autumn-mode! We MUST begin to plan our night for the Willow Ball!

Love to you and Bibs,

♥ Robin ♥

kj said...

i almost didn't open this post and i squirmed while reading your lovely poem.

i can't help it.

i've had four bats in my house and every moment they flew in and out of rooms i shuddered.

i willingly will every bat experience i will ever have to you and robin.

love
kj :^)

Lisa at Greenbow said...

What an interesting poem about bats. I would love to go splunking to find bats. They are rare around here.

Sue said...

A great bat poem! Were you inspired by a nightly bat walk? It brings you into another universe...
Bats are fantastic creatures, very enigmatic and shy. I once had one in my bedroom, suddenly flattering around... I was scared to death, and I'd bet the creature as well! Fortunately it found its way out through the window, into the night.

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

I am with kj.. squirmy. Cant see self in a bat cave ever. :)

sukipoet said...

I wrote this bat poem to fulfill a writing prompt from my poetry class. we were to write about an animal and then change the tone of the poem when we come to an understanding of the animal. or something like that.

there are bats living somewhere in my breezeway as evidenced by their droppings and also one day there was one on the breezeway wall. i was going to write about that.

but then i remembered doing this cave crawl many years ago and my shock at seeing the bats gathered on the cave ceiling. they didnt bother us as we crawled through the tunnel. i guess they were sleeping.

i am not comfortable around bats. i must say.

Unknown said...

This is wonderful ... I never see bats where I live here in western Washington, but when we were kids in Illinois we used to run around at night with paper bags on our head because we thought the bats would come after us .... They are such mysterious creatures!

studio lolo said...

happy birthday Suki!!!!!!!!

This is a wonderful poem about a much misunderstood creature.
I don't feel cuddley towards them like Robin though!

Good for you for going into the caves. I get too claustrophobic.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

xo
Lo♥

Mim said...

Happy birthday yo you. ....and I hope the bats stay away. I know that they are good to have around but they terrify me!

Lynne with an e said...

Well, for once I did not let out a blood-curdling scream, pull my sweater over my head, and barricade myself in my bedroom waiting for someone else to come and deal with the bat that got in.

Lynne with an e said...

PS. the lack of such actions previously mentioned is testament to the power of your poetry!

Blue Sky Dreaming said...

I did a similar crawl in a cave in Kentucky years ago...still feel unnerved about the bats. You seem pretty stoic about your neighboring bat or do you dash with hood over your head through the breezeway?

Lynn Cohen said...

Why did I think this was more than just about bats??? Pregnant woman got me...???HUMMMM. Will go back and read it again. I like the blanket phrase.