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:
- Between the Dusk of a Summer Night by William Ernest Henley
- Pejar Creek by Mary Gilmore
- Usurpation
- Untitled XI by Yunus Emre
- Observation Car
- To a Friend poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Family Reunion by Sylvia Plath
- So I Said I Am Ezra poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Некрасов – Я не люблю иронии твоей
- Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none by William Shakespeare
- A Wicker Basket by Robert Creeley
- In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
- An Autumn-Blooming Rose poem – Alfred Austin
- English Poetry. Philip James Bailey. Festus – 34. Филип Джеймс Бэйли.
- Огюст Барбье – Кьяйя
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
- Bubblin’ Up by Shel Silverstein
- Bituminous? by Shel Silverstein
- Bigtime by Shel Silverstein
- Better Not Ask Me by Shel Silverstein
- Whatif by Shel Silverstein
- Weird-Bird by Shel Silverstein
- The Toucan by Shel Silverstein
- The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt by Shel Silverstein
- Rain by Shel Silverstein
- Rain by Shel Silverstein
- Picture Puzzle Piece by Shel Silverstein
- One Inch Tall by Shel Silverstein
- It’s Dark in Here by Shel Silverstein
- God’s Wheel by Shel Silverstein
- Forgotten Language by Shel Silverstein
- Danny O’Dare by Shel Silverstein
- Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein
- Beans Taste Fine by Shel Silverstein
- Batty by Shel Silverstein
- Ations by Shel Silverstein
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
