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:
- Николай Некрасов – Вступление к песням 1876-77 годов
- Владимир Луговской – Ночной патруль
- After Years by Ted Kooser
- Where Have We All Gone by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet
- O, Were I Loved As I Desire To Be! poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Battle Of Corruna by William Lisle Bowles
- Lines Composed on the Body Politic by Rita Dove
- Михаил Кузмин – Запел петух, таинственный предвестник
- The Battle of an National Icon by Norma Martiri
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Пещеры Кизиль-коба
- Olney Hymn 38: Looking Upwards In A Storm by William Cowper
- Нина Стожкова – Подарки деда Мороза
- Владимир Маяковский – Нетрудно, ландышами дыша
- How a Little Girl Danced 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
- A Rustic Seat Near The Sea by William Lisle Bowles
- A Garden-Seat At Home by William Lisle Bowles
- Where fair Sabrina’s wand’ring currents flow by William Somervile
- To the Right Hon. The Earl of Halifax , with the Fable of the Two Springs by William Somervile
- To the Right Hon. Lady Anne Coventry by William Somervile
- To the Duke of Marlborough, upon His Removal From All His Places by William Somervile
- To the Author of the The Essay on Man by William Somervile
- To Dr. MReading Mathmatics by William Somervile
- To a Young Lady, with the Illiad of Homer Translated by William Somervile
- To a Lady, Who Made Me a Present of a Silver Pen by William Somervile
- To a Gentleman, Who Married His Cast Mistress by William Somervile
- To a Discarded Toast by William Somervile
- The Yeoman of Kent by William Somervile
- The Wolf and the Dog by William Somervile
- The Wise Builder by William Somervile
- The Two Springs by William Somervile
- The True Use of the Looking-Glass by William Somervile
- The Superannuated Lover by William Somervile
- The Sheep and the Bush by William Somervile
- The Lamentation of David Over Saul and Jonathan by William Somervile
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
