About Face poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster

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

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Poems in English 

• Ольга Берггольц – Слышала, приедешь к нам не скоро ты by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Синеглазый мальчик, синеглазый by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Сибиринка by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Сестре by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Родине by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Разговор с соседкой by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Простите бедность этих строк by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Придешь, как приходят слепые by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Потеряла я вечером слово by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Порука by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Полуночная by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Покуда небо сумрачное меркнет by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Подбирают фомки и отмычки by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Письмо из Ленинграда by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Песня о жене патриота by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Песня о ленинградской матери by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Песня дочери by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Первое письмо на Каму by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Пахнет соснами, гарью, тленьем by Ольга Берггольц
• Ольга Берггольц – Память (Всей земною горечью и болью) by Ольга Берггольц

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