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:
- He Thinks Of Those Who Have Spoken Evil Of His Beloved by William Butler Yeats
- Extempore in the Court of Session by Robert Burns
- Mungojerrie And Rumpelteazer by T. S. Eliot
- A Christmas Carol by William Topaz McGonagall
- Юлиан Анисимов – Камнем сгрудилась комната
- A Dedication. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier
- Poor Mailie’s Elegy by Robert Burns
- Алексей Жемчужников – Я музыкальным чувством обладаю
- The Sacrifice Of Iphigenia
- On the Death of a Young Gentleman by Phillis Wheatley
- Christopher Found poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Song—Anna, thy Charms by Robert Burns
- Snow Flakes by Tala Bar
- An Empty Threat by Robert Frost
- The Nights Remember by Sara Teasdale
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
- The End by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Child-Angel by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Chanpa Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Boat by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Banyan Tree by Rabindranath Tagore
- Superior by Rabindranath Tagore
- Strong Mercy by Rabindranath Tagore
- Still Heart by Rabindranath Tagore
- Song Unsung by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sleep by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sit Smiling by Rabindranath Tagore
- Silent Steps by Rabindranath Tagore
- Signet of Eternity by Rabindranath Tagore
- She by Rabindranath Tagore
- Senses by Rabindranath Tagore
- Seashore by Rabindranath Tagore
- Salutation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sail Away by Rabindranath Tagore
- Roaming Cloud by Rabindranath Tagore
- Purity by Rabindranath Tagore
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