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:
- Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots by Robert Burns
- Kalli
- Nocturne by W H Auden
- In A Letter To C. P. Esq. Ill With The Rheumatism by William Cowper
- Worry by Mridula Makkuni
- Physically Hearted
- Path by Pierre Reverdy
- Владимир Луговской – Повелитель бумаги
- Валерий Брюсов – Я жизнью пьян. Напиток жгучий
- A Magic Moment I Remember poem – Alexander Pushkin
- The Sky A-Clearen by William Barnes
- Ballade Of His Books poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Sweetheart by M. T. Metutera
- Олег Бундур – Колыбельная для мамы
- The Voice of Robert Desnos by Robert Desnos
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
- Spain 1873–’74. by Walt Whitman
- Souvenirs of Democracy. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Universal. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Redwood-Tree. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Open Road. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Exposition. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Broad-Axe. by Walt Whitman
- Song for All Seas, All Ships. by Walt Whitman
- Song at Sunset. by Walt Whitman
- Sometimes with One I Love. by Walt Whitman
- Solid, Ironical, Rolling Orb. by Walt Whitman
- Sobbing of The Bells, The. by Walt Whitman
- So Long. by Walt Whitman
- So Far and So Far, and on Toward the End. by Walt Whitman
- The Sleepers by Walt Whitman
- Singer in the Prison, The. by Walt Whitman
- Sing of the Banner at Day-Break. by Walt Whitman
- Shut Not Your Doors, &c. by Walt Whitman
- Ship Starting, The. by Walt Whitman
- Scented Herbage of My Breast. by Walt Whitman
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