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 Last Battle Of The Cid
- Олег Бундур – Заботливая бабушка
- To his Indifferent Mistress by William Wycherley
- Epigram : To Leonora Singing At Rome 2 (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- Sonnet 62: Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye by William Shakespeare
- Anniversaries poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- libation.html
- The Shrike by Sylvia Plath
- Anteater by Shel Silverstein
- The Delibash poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Blue Mountains by Satish Verma
- The Infernal Regions
- Gethsemane by Rudyard Kipling
- Robert Burns: The Rigs O’ Barley:
- Epitaph on William Hood, Senior by Robert Burns
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
- Hope by Swaraj Prasad
- Ematiated Souls by Suuk Simon Subinimah
- Curtis by Susan King Saunders
- Caught by Susan Adams
- A soldier’s Pledge by Sylvan Lightbourne
- A character of it’s own by Sylvan Lightbourne
- Zoo-Keeper’s Wife by Sylvia Plath
- You’re by Sylvia Plath
- Yadwigha, On A Red Couch, Among Lillies by Sylvia Plath
- Yaddo : The Grand Manor by Sylvia Plath
- Wreath For A Bridal by Sylvia Plath
- Words Heard, By Accident, Over The Phone by Sylvia Plath
- A Winter’s Tale by Sylvia Plath
- Winter Landscape, With Rooks by Sylvia Plath
- Watercolor Of Grantchester Meadows by Sylvia Plath
- Waking In Winter by Sylvia Plath
- Virgin In A Tree by Sylvia Plath
- Two Views Of Withens by Sylvia Plath
- Two Views Of A Cadaver Room by Sylvia Plath
- Two Sisters Of Persephone by Sylvia Plath
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