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:
- The Two Terrors poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- never.html
- On A Mischievous Bull, Which The Owner Him Sold At The Author’s Instance by William Cowper
- Владимир Высоцкий – Всё меньше вас, участники войны
- Audley Court poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Night dyes its hair by Vladimir Marku
- Такахама Кёси – Давнишний приятель
- Вергилий – Буколики
- The Lost Friend poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Abuses and Awards poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- by_an_evolutionist.html
- Валерий Брюсов – Дрожащие листья на бледные щеки
- Petals poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Christmas poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Gamajun, the Prophetic Bird poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
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
- Cologne by Paul Celan
- Canal Bank Walk by Patrick Kavanagh
- Brooklyn Narcissus by Paul Blackburn
- Braga by Walid Saba
- Bistro Memories by P.J.Reed
- Bicycle Ride by Pat Mullan
- AUTUMN GRAPES by Önder Kurt
- Autumn by P. K. Page
- And Then It Rained by Pamela Griffiths
- Alameda by Paul Blackburn
- After Rain by P. K. Page
- Advent by Patrick Kavanagh
- Adolescence by P. K. Page
- Addiction by Walid Saba
- A Silent Song by Pamela Griffiths
- A Crimson Carpet by Pamela Griffiths
- A Cat Called Shan by Pamela Griffiths
- Your Words by Piera Chen
- Your souls are ours by Philo Ikonya
- You Are Mine by Pushpendra Singh Baghel
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
