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:
- Flowers of Sion: Sonnet 11 – The last and greatest herald by William Drummond
- Владимир Ступкин – Тоска
- I Have A Rendezvous With Death
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 56. Томас Мур.
- Ruined World by Michael Yuan
- The Looking-Glass. : on Mrs. Pulteney poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- To Autumn poem – John Keats poems
- Sappho Redivivus: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- Anne Pennington by Vasko Popa
- Нина Воронель – Дан приказ
- Autum by T.S. Hulme
- A Promise to California. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: Remorseful Apology:
- Олег Бундур – Я не плачу
- Counter-Attack 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
- Константин Батюшков – Мадригал Мелине, которая называла себя нимфою
- Константин Батюшков – Любовь в челноке
- Константин Бальмонт – Народные поверья
- Константин Бальмонт – Нам нравятся поэты
- Константин Бальмонт – Надгробные цветы
- Константин Бальмонт – Над морем
- Константин Бальмонт – На вершине
- Константин Бальмонт – На мотив псалма XVIII-гo
- Константин Бальмонт – На мотив экклезиаста
- Константин Бальмонт – На дальнем полюсе
- Константин Бальмонт – Мы шли в золотистом тумане
- Константин Бальмонт – Мы прячем, душим тонкой сетью лжи
- Константин Бальмонт – Музыка
- Константин Бальмонт – Мудрецы говорят
- Константин Бальмонт – Можно жить с закрытыми глазами
- Константин Бальмонт – Мост
- Константин Бальмонт – Морское дно
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская песня
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская пани
- Константин Бальмонт – Морозные узоры
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
