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:
- houses.html
- Memorials Of A Tour Of Scotland, 1803 VI. Glen-Almain, Or, The Narrow Glen by William Wordsworth
- The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
- Алексей Жемчужников – Воспоминание в деревне о Петербурге
- Desesperanto by Marilyn Hacker
- In Darkness poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet
- From Menander by William Cowper
- Sonnet 04
- Владимир Маяковский – Новый враг
- Augustus Gloop… by Roald Dahl
- The Gift by Rabindranath Tagore
- Ballade Of His Books poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Зинаида Александрова – В гости к бабушке
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
- Омар Хайям – Чистый дух, заключенный в нечистый сосуд
- Омар Хайям – Чем пустыми мечтами себя донимать
- Омар Хайям – Чем ниже человек душой, тем выше задирает нос
- Омар Хайям – Чье сердце не горит любовью страстной к милой
- Омар Хайям – Часть людей обольщается жизнью земной
- Омар Хайям – Бытует мнение, что счастье это дар
- Омар Хайям – Был бы я благочестьем прославиться рад
- Омар Хайям – Будут гурии, мед и вино
- Омар Хайям – Будь хмельным и влюбленным всегда
- Омар Хайям – Будь все добро мое кирпич один, в кружало
- Омар Хайям – Будь мягче к людям
- Омар Хайям – Будь камнем твердым я
- Омар Хайям – Бросать не стоит в будущее взгляд
- Омар Хайям – Бокала полного веселый вид мне люб
- Омар Хайям – Бог есть, и всё есть Бог
- Омар Хайям – Благородство страданием, друг, рождено
- Омар Хайям – Благородные люди, друг друга любя
- Омар Хайям – Безгрешными приходим и грешим
- Омар Хайям – Без меня собираясь в застолье хмельном
- Омар Хайям – Ад и рай
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
