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:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Случай
- A Rhyme About an Electrical Advertising Sign by Vachel Lindsay
- Михаил Лермонтов – Челнок (Воет ветр и свистит пред недальной грозой)
- The Human Tragedy ACT I poem – Alfred Austin
- Ок Мельникова – Всё будет
- Birthday party blunder by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns
- On Looking For Models
- Вероника Тушнова – Твои глаза
- The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Broncho That Would Not Be Broken by Vachel Lindsay
- The Veairy Veet That I Do Meet by William Barnes
- Ольга Седакова – Играющий ребенок
- The Song of the Dead by Rudyard Kipling
- Юлия Друнина – В сорок пятом
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 Reformers by Rudyard Kipling
- The Recall by Rudyard Kipling
- The Rabbi’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- The Quesion by Rudyard Kipling
- The Queen’s Men by Rudyard Kipling
- The Puzzler by Rudyard Kipling
- The Prodigal Son by Rudyard Kipling
- The Pro-Consuls by Rudyard Kipling
- The Prayer of Miriam Cohen by Rudyard Kipling
- The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- The Last Rhyme of True Thomas by Rudyard Kipling
- The Last of the Light Brigade by Rudyard Kipling
- The Last Department by Rudyard Kipling
- The Land by Rudyard Kipling
- The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief by Rudyard Kipling
- The Ladies by Rudyard Kipling
- The Kingdom by Rudyard Kipling
- The Jester by Rudyard Kipling
- The Jacket by Rudyard Kipling
- THE IRISH GUARDS by Rudyard Kipling
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
