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:
- Олег Бундур – Сон
- Troopin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Without Ceremony by Thomas Hardy
- Иван Киуру – Роща заалела
- Robin Redbreast by William Allingham
- The First Part: Sonnet 10 – Fair Moon, who with thy cold and silver shine by William Drummond
- Claribel: A Melody poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Harry Ploughman poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Winter Landscape, With Rooks by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Степанов – Эскимос (Буква Э)
- O Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
- Forever
- Light by Tala Bar
- Perseus by Robert Hayden
- Elegy to the Old Man Hokuju by Yosa Buson
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
- Every Sect has a Faith – Har Qaum Raast Raahay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Every Sect has a Faith – Har Qaum Raast Raahay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 7 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 6 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 5 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 4 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 3 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 2 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 11 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 10 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 1 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- O Wondrous Ecstatic Eyes – Chashmay Mastay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Chaap Tilak poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Celebrate Spring Today poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Bahut Kathin Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Babul poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- What a Glow Everywhere I see – Aaj Rung Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Celebrate Spring Today poem with a translation – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Words You Said poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
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