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:
- Sonnet LXV by William Shakespeare
- On A Drop Of Dew poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Run to Death poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Николай Глазков – Баллада о трактористе и ритуальном камне
- To Delia by William Cowper
- Владимир Костров – Поток ушедших лет
- A Big Idea? by Satish Verma
- Олег Бундур – Умный кот
- Day’s Work A-Done by William Barnes
- Иван Бунин – Пустыня, грусть в степных просторах
- Priorities of Life and Death
- Владимир Британишский – A за Уралом – сгустки городов
- Олег Григорьев – Стаканы
- Ingrateful Beauty Threatened by Thomas Carew
- Владимир Маяковский – При свободной торговле… (Главполитпросвет №232)
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
- Николай Заболоцкий – Поэт
- Николай Заболоцкий – Подводный город
- Николай Заболоцкий – Пир в доме Бомбеева
- Николай Заболоцкий – Пекарня
- Николай Заболоцкий – Оттепель
- Николай Заболоцкий – Осенний клен
- Николай Заболоцкий – Осеннее утро
- Николай Заболоцкий – Офорт
- Николай Заболоцкий – Одиссей и Сирены
- Николай Заболоцкий – Обводной канал
- Николай Заболоцкий – Обед
- Николай Заболоцкий – Новый быт
- Николай Заболоцкий – Ночное гулянье
- Николай Заболоцкий – Ночь в лесу
- Николай Заболоцкий – Неудачник
- Николай Заболоцкий – Небесная Севилья
- Николай Заболоцкий – Народный дом
- Николай Заболоцкий – Начало зимы
- Николай Заболоцкий – На закате
- Николай Заболоцкий – На рынке
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
