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:
- No Regrets by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Перевал
- My Butterfly by Robert Frost
- A Meeting poem – Alfred Austin
- Song Of The Parao Camping Ground
- Николай Заболоцкий – Монолог в лесу
- There Is No Breeze To Cool The Heat Of Love
- Владимир Корнилов – Прямота
- Farewell and adieu… by Rudyard Kipling
- Lines Written On A Blank Leaf In A Copy Of The Author’s Poem “The Excursion,” by William Wordsworth
- Аля Кудряшева – Ночное
- Barmaid by William Ernest Henley
- When ‘Omer Smote ‘Is Bloomin’ Lyre by Rudyard Kipling
- Little angel by Vladimir Marku
- Dark Matter by Aaron Baker
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 Жуковский – Элизиум
- Василий Жуковский – Дружба
- Василий Жуковский – На смерть Андрея Тургенева
- Василий Жуковский – На первое отречение от престола Бонапарте
- Василий Жуковский – Мщение
- Василий Жуковский – Моя богиня
- Василий Жуковский – Море
- Василий Жуковский – Могущество, слава и благоденствие России
- Василий Жуковский – Младенец: Стих, который легко учится, 28 строк – Стихотворения Жуковского на Poetry Monster
- Василий Жуковский – Мина
- Василий Жуковский – Тоска по милом
- Василий Жуковский – Торжество победителей
- Василий Жуковский – Теснятся все к тебе во храм
- Василий Жуковский – Там небеса и воды ясны
- Василий Жуковский – Светлане
- Василий Жуковский – Суд Божий над епископом
- Вера Павлова – Праздник после праздника
- Вера Павлова – Попытка не пытка
- Вера Павлова – Поколенье, лишённое почерка и походки
- Вера Павлова – Покамест я всем детям тётя
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
