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:
- Some Say by Mark Miller
- From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On Holy Willie:
- not_love_perhaps.html
- Олег Бундур – Из магазина
- Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
- An Answer poem – Alfred Austin
- “`If you were mine, if you were mine” poem – Alfred Austin
- To a Childless Woman by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Defeat of Youth poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Street Song by Sylvia Plath
- Carrion Comfort poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- In Transit by Satish Verma
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о двух красивых автомобилях
- The Clote (Water-Lily) by William Barnes
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
- Федор Сологуб – Слышу голос милой
- Федор Сологуб – Словно лепится сурепица
- Федор Сологуб – Словами горькими надменных отрицаний
- Федор Сологуб – Слепой судьбе противореча
- Федор Сологуб – Сладко мечтается мне
- Федор Сологуб – Скупа Филис, но пыл мятежный
- Федор Сологуб – Скоро солнце встанет
- Федор Сологуб – Под холодною властью тумана
- Федор Сологуб – Под сению креста рыдающая мать
- Федор Сологуб – Под кустами
- Федор Сологуб – Под черёмухой цветущей
- Федор Сологуб – Побеждайте радость
- Федор Сологуб – Плачет безутешная вдова
- Федор Сологуб – Певице
- Федор Сологуб – Моя верховная воля
- Федор Сологуб – Лихо
- Федор Сологуб – Лиловато-розовый закат
- Федор Сологуб – Либава, Либава, товарная душа
- Федор Сологуб – Лежу и дышу осторожно
- Федор Сологуб – Лесная тропа
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