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:
- 致老鼠的铅笔
- Ок Мельникова – 3. 45 a. m
- The Voice of Robert Desnos by Robert Desnos
- I See so Deeply Within Myself by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- To Dorothy by Marvin Bell
- “Wishing to float” by Seema Gupta
- A Little Tooth by Thomas Lux
- The Dregs Of Love poem – Alfred Austin
- America by Walter William Safar
- On The Decline Of Oracles by Sylvia Plath
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Going for the Cows. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- My Mother’s Body by Marge Piercy
- At Bessemer by Philip Levine
- Never Try To Trick Me With A Kiss by Sylvia Plath
- Николай Глазков – Бабье лето
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
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Спортивный марш
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Солнце садится
- Василий Тредиаковский – Видеть все женские лица
- Василий Тредиаковский – В сем озере бедные любовники
- Василий Тредиаковский – В белости ее румяной
- Василий Тредиаковский – Песенка любовна
- Василий Тредиаковский – Описание грозы, бывшей в Гааге
- Василий Тредиаковский – О коль мне тамо сладка веселия было
- Василий Тредиаковский – Ну, так уже я не стал быть вашим отныне
- Василий Тредиаковский – Невозможно быть довольным
- Василий Тредиаковский – Мое сердце все было в страсти
- Василий Тредиаковский – Леший и мужик
- Василий Тредиаковский – К почтению, льзя объявить любовь
- Василий Тредиаковский – Дворы там весьма суть уединенны
- Василий Тредиаковский – Будь жестока, будь упорна
- Василий Жуковский – Деревенский сторож в полночь
- Василий Жуковский – Цветок
- Василий Жуковский – Человек
- Василий Жуковский – Был у меня товарищ
- Василий Жуковский – Бородинская годовщина
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
