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:
- Иннокентий Анненский – Леконт де Лиль. Огненная жертва
- Online Lover by Rainbow Reed
- The Picture Of Little T.C. In A Prospect Of Flowers poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Sonnet Xiv
- Bahut Kathin Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Towards Break Of Day by William Butler Yeats
- English Literature for Shaping Your Ideas
- A Cozy Little Room by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Николай Глазков – Подражание
- The Heir Of Lynne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Mammary Tunes by Mark R Slaughter
- did you die, Ophelia? by Raj Arumugam
- A Day Dream by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- A Wintry Picture poem – Alfred Austin
- Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry
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
- Come up from the Fields, Father. by Walt Whitman
- City of Ships. by Walt Whitman
- City of Orgies. by Walt Whitman
- City Dead-House, The. by Walt Whitman
- Chanting the Square Deific. by Walt Whitman
- Centenarian’s Story, The. by Walt Whitman
- Cavalry Crossing a Ford. by Walt Whitman
- Carol of Words. by Walt Whitman
- Carol of Occupations. by Walt Whitman
- Camps of Green. by Walt Whitman
- By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame. by Walt Whitman
- By Broad Potomac’s Shore. by Walt Whitman
- Brother of All, with Generous Hand. by Walt Whitman
- Bivouac on a Mountain Side. by Walt Whitman
- Behold this Swarthy Face. by Walt Whitman
- Behavior. by Walt Whitman
- Beginning my Studies. by Walt Whitman
- Beginners. by Walt Whitman
- Beautiful Women. by Walt Whitman
- Beat! Beat! Drums! by Walt Whitman
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