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:
- Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson
- How…? by Nizar Sartawi
- Владимир Орлов – Белые стихи о черном пуделе
- O Tell Me The Truth About Love by W H Auden
- Николай Языков – Пушкину (О ты, чья дружба мне дороже)
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нет меня, я покинул Расею
- The Gallery poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Is Life Worth Living? poem – Alfred Austin
- A Requisition to the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall
- Planetarium
- For All We Have And Are by Rudyard Kipling
- From ‘Arcades’ poem – John Milton poems
- Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Черное озеро
- Doubt by Sara Teasdale
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
- Георгий Иванов – То, о чем искусство лжет
- Георгий Иванов – Теплятся жаркие свечи
- Георгий Иванов – Теперь тебя не уничтожат
- Георгий Иванов – Теперь, когда быстрее лавы
- Георгий Иванов – Танцуй, монах, танцуй, поэт
- Георгий Иванов – Там, над Невой зеленоватой
- Георгий Иванов – Так тихо гаснул этот день
- Георгий Иванов – Балтийское море дымилось
- Георгий Иванов – Аспазия, всегда Аспазия
- Георгий Иванов – Альбомный сонет
- Георгий Иванов – А может быть, еще и не конец
- Геннадий Айги – Два эпилога
- Геннадий Айги – Дом в поле
- Геннадий Айги – ДЕВОЧКА В ДЕТСТВЕ
- Геннадий Айги – ЧИТАЯ НОРВИДА
- Геннадий Айги – БЕЗ НАЗВАНИЯ
- Гавриил Державин – На Новый год
- Гавриил Державин – Модное остроумие
- Гавриил Державин – К первому соседу
- Гавриил Державин – К Анжелике Кауфман
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
