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:
- Why Me? by Michael Yuan
- A Jewish Family In A Small Valley Opposite St. Goar, Upon The Rhine by William Wordsworth
- Epigram : To Christina, Queen Of Sweden, With Cromwell’s Picture (Translation) by William Cowper
- Зинаида Александрова – Котята
- For the Bed at Kelmscott by William Morris
- Федор Сологуб – Купол церкви, крест и небо
- Alone by Sara Teasdale
- On Reading Omar Khayyam by Vachel Lindsay
- The Markets Are Down 2 Amp A Quarter
- Book Second [School-Time Continued] by William Wordsworth
- A Zong Of Harvest Hwome by William Barnes
- English Poetry. Philip James Bailey. Festus – 21.1. Филип Джеймс Бэйли.
- I met a seer by Stephen Crane
- Walls at Drogheda by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- The Eagle That is Forgotten by Vachel Lindsay
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
- Culver Dell And The Squire by William Barnes
- Corn A-Turnen Yollow by William Barnes
- Chris’mas Invitation by William Barnes
- Children’s Children by William Barnes
- Childhood by William Barnes
- Changes by William Barnes
- Brookwell by William Barnes
- Bringen Woone Gwaïn O’ Zundays by William Barnes
- Bob The Fiddler by William Barnes
- Blessens A-Left by William Barnes
- Bleäke’s House In Blackmwore by William Barnes
- Blackmwore Maidens by William Barnes
- The Blackbird by William Barnes
- Bishop’s Caundle by William Barnes
- Bees A-Zwarmen by William Barnes
- Beauty Undecked by William Barnes
- Be’mi’ster by William Barnes
- Bad News by William Barnes
- Aunt’s Tantrums by William Barnes
- Angels By The Door 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
