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:
- Elegy On An Australian Schoolboy poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Lightning In The Dark Night Skies
- Владимир Набоков – Еще безмолвствую и крепну я в тиши
- Николай Карамзин – Гимн
- Impotens poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- love growing by Raj Arumugam
- The Lent Lily by A. E. Housman
- From An Atlas Of The Difficult World
- The Rhyme of the Three Captains by Rudyard Kipling
- Sea God and the wind rose by Vinko Kalinić
- Gathering Leaves by Robert Frost
- Myfanwy poem – John Betjeman poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Ты знаешь это вот… (Главполитпросвет №267)
- The Hawthorn Tree by Willa Cather
- Zero by Robert Creeley
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 Stwonèn Pworch by William Barnes
- The Stage Coach by William Barnes
- The Sparrow Club by William Barnes
- The Slantèn Light O’ Fall by William Barnes
- The Sky A-Clearen by William Barnes
- The Shy Man by William Barnes
- The Shepherd O’ The Farm by William Barnes
- The Settle An’ The Girt Wood Vire by William Barnes
- The Scud by William Barnes
- The Rwose In The Dark by William Barnes
- The Railroad by William Barnes
- The Poplars by William Barnes
- The Pleäce Our Own Ageän by William Barnes
- The Pleäce A Teäle’s A-Twold O’ by William Barnes
- The Pillar’d Geäte by William Barnes
- The Peasant’s Return by William Barnes
- The New House A-Gettèn’ Wold by William Barnes
- The Neäme Letters by William Barnes
- The Music O’ The Dead by William Barnes
- The Motherless Child 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
