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:
- Владимир Вишневский – Нервическая песнь
- Владимир Ладыженский – Христос Воскрес, скворцы поют
- Sonnet CIV by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet Of Motherhood VI poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Beach Glass poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A King’s Soliloquy [On the Night of His Funeral] by Thomas Hardy
- Goals – How to Get Everything You Want by Brian Tracy – Review
- Pan with Us by Robert Frost
- “Yes! Thou Art Fair, Yet Be Not Moved” by William Wordsworth
- Sir Galahad poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Ale by William Henry Davies
- Константин Бальмонт – Чудовище с клеймом
- Hither, Hither, Love poem – John Keats poems
- Elegy on Stella by Robert Burns
- Someday’s Here by Shel Silverstein
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
- Владимир Маяковский – Только организация урожай умножит… (Главполитпросвет №33)
- Владимир Маяковский – Точеные слоны
- Владимир Маяковский – Типографы книги делают… (РОСТА №241)
- Владимир Маяковский – Тигр и киса
- Владимир Маяковский – Теоретики
- Владимир Маяковский – Тексты “окон”, переработанные для сборника “Грозный смех”
- Владимир Маяковский – Тексты для издательства “Сегодняшний лубок” (Плакаты)
- Владимир Маяковский – Тебе тепло?.. (РОСТА №599)
- Владимир Маяковский – Театры
- Владимир Маяковский – Тамара и демон
- Владимир Маяковский – Схема смеха
- Владимир Маяковский – Свидетельствую
- Владимир Маяковский – Студенту пролетарию
- Владимир Маяковский – Строители коммуны (РОСТА)
- Владимир Маяковский – Странно… но верно
- Владимир Маяковский – Столп
- Владимир Маяковский – Стой, товарищ! Стонет Поволжье, о помощи моля (Главполитпросвет №344)
- Владимир Маяковский – Стой!.. (РОСТА №416)
- Маяковский – Стоит баба с жопой метр на метр: стих, текст стихотворения Владимира Маяковского – Poetry Monster
- Владимир Маяковский – Стихотворение о проданной телятине
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