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:
- To Morrow
- Ode On The Spring by Thomas Gray
- Bubblin’ Up by Shel Silverstein
- I am not ashamed of myself by Swami Aaron Thomas
- Stretcher Case by Siegfried Sassoon
- Exodus Of The Heart by Wilmer Escovar
- Dickinson And The Alabaster Gogyohka
- THE DANGERS OF AN HONEST MAN IN MUCH COMPANY by Abraham Cowley
- Saison Noir by Shaunna Harper
- Fear by Vinko Kalinić
- Alone in the Wind, on the Prairie by Vachel Lindsay
- To A Young Writer by Yvor Winters
- To Youth by Sarojini Naidu
- Robert Burns: The Deil’s Awa Wi’ The Exciseman:
- A Japanese Wood-Carving poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- Николай Некрасов – Детство
- Николай Некрасов – Деревенские новости
- Николай Некрасов – Демону
- Николай Карамзин – Триолет Алете в тот день, как ей исполнилось 14 лет
- Николай Карамзин – Там всё велико, всё прелестно
- Николай Карамзин – Тацит
- Николай Карамзин – Странные люди
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи с поднесением выписок
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи на слова, заданные мне Хлoeю: миг, картина и дверь
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи на день рождения А. А. Плещеевой 14 октября
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи к портрету И.И. Дмитриева (Министр, поэт и друг)
- Николай Карамзин – Соловей, галки и вороны
- Николай Карамзин – Соломонова мудрость, или мысли, выбранные из Экклезиаста
- Николай Карамзин – Сильфида
- Николай Карамзин – Рогатому человеку
- Николай Карамзин – Раиса (Древняя баллада)
- Николай Карамзин – Прости
- Николай Карамзин – Пророчество на 1799 год, найденное в бумагах Нострадамуса
- Николай Карамзин – Приношение грациям
- Николай Карамзин – Посвящение к «Аглае»
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