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 Rape of the Lock poem – Alexander Pope
- Владимир Маяковский – Дела вузные, хорошие и конфузные
- The Brothers by William Wordsworth
- O my faithful by Priyanka Tungana
- Grass by Russell Edson
- Sonnet CVII by William Shakespeare
- Анатолий Жигулин – Лесные дороги
- Владимир Набоков – Скитальцы
- Elegy VI. To Charles Diodati, When He Was Visiting In The Country (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- All Night In Savannah The Wind Wrote Poetry
- Apology to Delia by William Cowper
- Hope, Like The Short-lived Ray That Gleams Awhile by William Cowper
- A Prayer to All the Dead among Mine Own People by Vachel Lindsay
- The house where I was born (08) by Yves Bonnefoy
- The Rwose In The Dark by William Barnes
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
- Oonts by Rudyard Kipling
- One Viceroy Resigns by Rudyard Kipling
- Natural Theology by Rudyard Kipling
- My Rival by Rudyard Kipling
- My New-Cut Ashler by Rudyard Kipling
- My Lady’s Law by Rudyard Kipling
- My Boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling
- Mulholland’s Contract by Rudyard Kipling
- Mowgli’s Song Against People by Rudyard Kipling
- Mowgli’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- Mother o’ Mine by Rudyard Kipling
- Morning Song in the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- Mine Sweepers by Rudyard Kipling
- Mesopotamia by Rudyard Kipling
- Merrow Down by Rudyard Kipling
- Mary’s Son by Rudyard Kipling
- Mary, Pity Women! by Rudyard Kipling
- Many Inventions by Rudyard Kipling
- Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling
- Lukannon 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
