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:
- Алексей Толстой – Ты жертва жизненных тревог
- Heaven by Philip Levine
- Владимир Корнилов – На колоннаде
- Николай Языков – Песня (Я жду тебя, когда вечерней мглою)
- Be’mi’ster by William Barnes
- Coromandel Fishers by Sarojini Naidu
- Dusk In War Time by Sara Teasdale
- Electra On Azalea Path by Sylvia Plath
- My angel’s face by Vinko Kalinić
- The Human Tragedy ACT II poem – Alfred Austin
- Madonna poem – Alfred Austin
- In Praise of Songs that Die by Vachel Lindsay
- Some Say by Mark Miller
- Robert Burns: Complimentary Epigram On Maria Riddell:
- Robert Burns: Awa’ Whigs, Awa’:
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
- Address To The Scholars Of The Village School Of — by William Wordsworth
- Address To Kilchurn Castle, Upon Loch Awe by William Wordsworth
- Address To A Child During A Boisterous Winter By My Sister by William Wordsworth
- A Wren’s Nest by William Wordsworth
- A Whirl-Blast From Behind The Hill by William Wordsworth
- A Prophecy. February 1807 by William Wordsworth
- A Night Thought by William Wordsworth
- A Night-Piece by William Wordsworth
- A Narrow Girdle Of Rough Stones And Crags, by William Wordsworth
- A Flower Garden At Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire. by William Wordsworth
- A Farewell by William Wordsworth
- A Character by William Wordsworth
- Upon a Lady’s Fall Over a Stile, Gotten by Running From Her Love by William Wycherley
- To his Indifferent Mistress by William Wycherley
- The Poor Lover to His Rich Mistress about to Marry His Coxcombly Rival by William Wycherley
- Sleep and Death by William Wycherley
- On a Sea Fight, Which the Author was in, Betwixt the English and Dutch by William Wycherley
- Love and Wine by William Wycherley
- In Praise of Laziness by William Wycherley
- Drinking-Song, A. To a Formal, Proud, Sober Coxcomb by William Wycherley
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
