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:
- Their Frailty by Siegfried Sassoon
- On Receiving A Curious Shell poem – John Keats poems
- Leady-Day, An’ Ridden House by William Barnes
- Николай Огарев – Прощанье с краем, откуда не уезжал
- Morning Song by Sylvia Plath
- One Year by Sharon Olds
- Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry
- Diving Into The Wreck
- The Love Child by William Barnes
- The Lads in Their Hundreds poem – A. E. Housman
- The ME inside by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art poem – John Keats poems
- Ольга Берггольц – Марш оловянных солдатиков
- Федор Сологуб – Снова саваны надели
- Омар Хайям – Даже с самой прекрасной из милых подруг
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
- Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Music by Stephen Vincent Benet
- May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Love in Twilight by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Going Back to School by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet
- A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit
- The Convoy by Stephenie Tucker
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
