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:
- Ashes of Soldiers. by Walt Whitman
- Новелла Матвеева – Река
- may each find the peace within by Raj Arumugam
- Computer Cookies: Are They Good or Bad?
- Омар Хайям – Не оплакивай, смертный, вчерашних потерь
- Blind Man’s Buff by William Blake
- Федор Сологуб – Под черёмухой цветущей
- The house where I was born (07) by Yves Bonnefoy
- Listening poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- His Pilgrimage by Sir Walter Raleigh
- How Do You Produce Original Articles?
- To Prince Charles by William Alexander
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 2 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Soldiers Grave
- Алексей Ржевский – Долго ль прельщаться
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
- Sir Giles’ War-Song by William Morris
- Sir Galahad, a Christmas Mystery by William Morris
- Sad-Eyed and Soft and Grey by William Morris
- Riding Together by William Morris
- Pomona by William Morris
- Our Hands Have Met by William Morris
- Night by William Morris
- Near But Far Away by William Morris
- Near Avalon by William Morris
- Mine and Thine by William Morris
- March by William Morris
- Love’s Gleaning Tide by William Morris
- King Arthur’s Tomb by William Morris
- In Prison by William Morris
- Iceland First Seen by William Morris
- For the Bed at Kelmscott by William Morris
- Flora by William Morris
- Earth the Healer, Earth the Keeper by William Morris
- Day by William Morris
- Autumn by William Morris
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
