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:
- Николай Глазков – Покуда карты не раскрыты
- Владимир Лифшиц – Сверчок
- Ольга Седакова – Вениамин
- Hunger and Thirst by Muhammad Dawood Jan
- The Weavers by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Владимир Маяковский – Новые силы в III Интернационале!.. (РОСТА №891)
- When I Married Halld R Laxness
- Sound And Sense poem – Alexander Pope
- Mother by Shahida Latif
- Orlando Furioso Canto 12 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Deep In The Night by Sara Teasdale
- Hope by Swaraj Prasad
- The Owners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Thought. by Walt Whitman
- Earliest Spring by William Dean Howells
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
- Doomes-Day: The Fourth Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The First Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Fifth Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Eleventh Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Eighth Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Second Houre by William Alexander
- An Eccho by William Alexander
- A Short View Of: The State Of Man by William Alexander
- A Parænesis To Prince Henry by William Alexander
- Written In A Quarrel by William Cowper
- Written In A Fit Of Illness. R. S. S. by William Cowper
- Written After Leaving Her At New Burns by William Cowper
- Watching Unto God In The Night Season by William Cowper
- Watching Unto God In The Night Season (3) by William Cowper
- Watching Unto God In The Night Season (2) by William Cowper
- Verses Written At Bath, On Finding The Heel Of A Shoe by William Cowper
- Verses Printed By Himself On A Flood At Olney by William Cowper
- To The Rev. Mr. Newton, On His Return From Ramsgate by William Cowper
- To The Rev. Mr. Newton : An Invitation Into The Country by William Cowper
- To Mary by William Cowper
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