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:
- Константин Бальмонт – Чудовище с клеймом
- Вера Звягинцева – Стоишь, не поднимая глаз
- Boldness in Love by Thomas Carew
- After the Battle by Thomas Moore
- On The Death Of A Fair Infant Dying Of A Cough poem – John Milton poems
- Exmoor poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Year O’ year by Nikunj Sharma
- The New Decalogue poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sonnet Xiv
- Ballad of the Goodly Fere poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Валерий Брюсов – Фонарики
- re_word by RD McManes
- I Had To Leave by Subhash Misra
- A Hymn to Love by Robert Herrick
- The Rear-Guard by Siegfried Sassoon
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
- Омар Хайям – Думал я, что верны обещанья твои
- Омар Хайям – Друзей поменьше
- Омар Хайям – Друг, умей от пустой суеты отличать
- Омар Хайям – Друг, два понятия должен бы ты затвердить
- Омар Хайям – Долго ль спину придется мне гнуть или нет
- Омар Хайям – Долго ль будешь скорбеть и печалиться, друг
- Омар Хайям – До того, как мы чашу судьбы изопьем
- Омар Хайям – До коих пор униженный позор терпеть
- Омар Хайям – Для тех, кто умирает
- Омар Хайям – День прошел, и о нем позабудь поскорей
- Омар Хайям – День каждый услаждай вином
- Омар Хайям – Даже с самой прекрасной из милых подруг
- Омар Хайям – Дай мне влаги хмельной, укрепляющей дух
- Омар Хайям – Дай коснуться, любимая, прядей густых
- Омар Хайям – Да пребудет вино неразлучно с тобой
- Омар Хайям – Цветам и запахам владеть тобой доколе
- Омар Хайям – Что жизнь
- Омар Хайям – Что я дружу с вином, не отрицаю, нет
- Омар Хайям – Что плоть твоя, Хайям?
- Омар Хайям – Что меня ожидает, неведомо мне
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
