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:
- Light Or Sheäde by William Barnes
- At The Last Watch by Rabindranath Tagore
- Николай Рубцов – Загородил мою дорогу
- Child’s Park Stones by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Британишский – Матери моей
- Deity of my dreams by Vasishta Sharma Gudi
- Владимир Маяковский – Россия — единое советское хозяйство (РОСТА № 280)
- A Week by Thomas Hardy
- Eclogue:–Racketèn Joe by William Barnes
- Ольга Берггольц – Романс стойкого оловянного солдатика
- An Epigram From Homer by William Cowper
- Untimely Leave by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Land Beyond the Rainbow by Walter William Safar
- Владимир Гиппиус – Закон чего? – закона нет
- Зинаида Александрова – Невидимка
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 Hedger by William Barnes
- The Heäre by William Barnes
- The Guide Post by William Barnes
- The Girt Wold House O’ Mossy Stwone by William Barnes
- The Giants In Treädes by William Barnes
- The Flood In Spring by William Barnes
- The Farmer’s Woldest D’ter by William Barnes
- The Fancy Feäir At Maïden Newton by William Barnes
- The Fall by William Barnes
- The Evenèn Star O’ Zummer by William Barnes
- The Echo by William Barnes
- The Dree Woaks by William Barnes
- The Drèven O’ The Common by William Barnes
- The Do’set Militia by William Barnes
- The Common A-Took In by William Barnes
- The Clote (Water-Lily) by William Barnes
- The Church An’ Happy Zunday by William Barnes
- The Child’s Greäve by William Barnes
- The Child an’ the Mowers by William Barnes
- The Castle Ruins 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