Because life’s too short to blush,
I keep my blood tucked in.
I won’t be mortified
by what I drive or the flaccid
vivacity of my last dinner party.
I take my cue from statues posing only
in their shoulder pads of snow: all January
you can see them working on their granite tans.
That I woke at an ungainly hour,
stripped of the merchandise that clothed me,
distilled to pure suchness,
means not enough to anyone for me
to confess. I do not suffer
from the excess of taste
that spells embarrassment:
mothers who find their kids unseemly
in their condom earrings,
girls cringing to think
they could be frumpish as their mothers.
Though the late nonerotic Elvis
in his studded gut of jumpsuit
made everybody squeamish, I admit.
Rule one: the King must not elicit pity.
Was the audience afraid of being tainted
–this might rub off on me–
or were they–surrendering–
what a femme word–feeling
solicitous–glimpsing their fragility
in his reversible purples
and unwholesome goldish chains?
At least embarrassment is not an imitation.
It’s intimacy for beginners,
the orgasm no one cares to fake.
I almost admire it. I almost wrote despise.
Copyright ©:
Alice Fulton

A few random poems:
- Юлий Даниэль – Часовой
- At the Top of My voice by Vladimir Mayakovsky
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Попугая
- Water by Wendell Berry
- Epitaph
- Nature’s song for the children by Raj Arumugam
- Inflexible As Fate poem – Alfred Austin
- Eclogue:–A Bit O’ Sly Coorten by William Barnes
- Shema by Primo Levi
- Primeval my Love for the Woman I Love. by Walt Whitman
- English Poetry. Thomas Aird. The Devil’s Dream on Mount Aksbeck. Томас Эрд.
- Kangaroo talks to the Sun by Raj Arumugam
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Ночной пилигрим
- Duino Elegies: The First Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Poet Herodia of ancient Pincaeia by Raj Arumugam
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
- Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Ring Out Your Bells by Sir Philip Sidney
- Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney
- Philomela by Sir Philip Sidney
- Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show by Sir Philip Sidney
- Leave Me, O Love Which Reachest But To Dust by Sir Philip Sidney
- Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XLI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XCII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet XXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella; Sonnet CVIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella LXXXIV: HIGHWAY by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: LXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: LXIV by Sir Philip Sidney
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