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:
- The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain
- On The Bus
- Meeting by William Butler Yeats
- The Arrow by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Высоцкий – Живу я в лучшем из миров
- Incident Characteristic Of A Favorite Dog by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: The Parting Kiss:
- A Dream Or No by Thomas Hardy
- Николай Карамзин – Из мелодрамы Петр Великий (Жил был в свете добрый царь)
- Олег Бундур – А мне-то ничего
- Childless Woman by Sylvia Plath
- Юнна Мориц – Мой подвал
- Николай Заболоцкий – Городок
- Manhattan Streets I Saunter’d, Pondering. by Walt Whitman
- April Is The Saddest Month by William Carlos Williams
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
- The Wind In Woone’s Feäce by William Barnes
- The Wind At The Door by William Barnes
- The Widow’s House by William Barnes
- The White Road Up Athirt The Hill by William Barnes
- The Wheel Routs by William Barnes
- The Welshnut Tree by William Barnes
- The Weepen Leady by William Barnes
- The Weather-Beaten Tree by William Barnes
- The Water-Spring In The Leäne by William Barnes
- The Water Crowvoot by William Barnes
- The Waggon A-Stooded by William Barnes
- The Vrost by William Barnes
- The Vier-Zide by William Barnes
- The Veairy Veet That I Do Meet by William Barnes
- The Vaïces That Be Gone by William Barnes
- The Two Churches by William Barnes
- The Turnstile by William Barnes
- The Turn O’ The Days by William Barnes
- The Thorns In The Geäte by William Barnes
- The Stwonen Bwoy Upon The Pillar by William Barnes
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