About Face poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster – The Poetry Monster

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

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On Hermocratia (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Flaxman’s Penelope by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Flatteries (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Female Inconstancy (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Envy (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Delia (Bid Adieu, My Sad Heart) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Ugly Fellow (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Old Woman (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Infant (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A True Friend (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Thief (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Spaniel, Called Beau, Killing A Young Bird by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Plant Of Virgin’s-Bower, Designed To Cover A Garden-seat by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Mistake In His Translation Of Homer by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser, 2 (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Mischievous Bull, Which The Owner Him Sold At The Author’s Instance by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Good Man (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper

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