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:
- A Dialogue Betwixt Himself and Mistress Eliza Wheeler, under the Name of Amarillis by Robert Herrick
- Blue Squills by Sara Teasdale
- Any Wife To Any Husband by Robert Browning
- Николай Глазков – Поэзия! Ты не потерпишь фальши
- Николай Заболоцкий – Старость
- The Change
- Extempore in the Court of Session by Robert Burns
- Epigram to Miss Ainslie in Church by Robert Burns
- What would I do without this world by Samuel Beckett
- Николай Глазков – Про пожары
- Иван Мятлев – Бывало
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- a gentle day by Raj Arumugam
- The Ballad of the Red Earl by Rudyard Kipling
- The Rival by Sylvia Plath
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 Языков – Е. А. Тимашевой (Молодая ученица)
- Николай Языков – Е. А. Свербеевой (Мысль неразгульного поэта)
- Николай Языков – Две картины
- Николай Языков – Дума (Одну минуту, много две)
- Николай Языков – Дом сумасшедших в Дерпте
- Николай Языков – Девятое мая
- Николай Языков – Дева ночи
- Николай Языков – Давным-давно люблю я страстно
- Николай Языков – Д. Н. Свербееву (Во имя Руси, милый брат)
- Николай Языков – Чувствительное путешествие в Ревель
- Николай Языков – Благодарю вас за цветы
- Николай Языков – Баян к русскому воину
- Николай Языков – Ау
- Николай Языков – Альпийская песня
- Николай Языков – Аделаиде (Я твой, я твой, Аделаида)
- Николай Языков – А. В. Тихвинскому (Как знать, куда моя дорога)
- Николай Языков – А. В. Киреевой (Тогда как сердцем мы лелеем)
- Николай Языков – А. С. Дириной
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Вульфу (Теперь я в Камби, милый мой)
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Вульфу (Нe называй меня поэтом)
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
