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:
- The Dark Hour by William Henry Davies
- Такахама Кёси – Грущу о былом
- The Need To Love
- Валерий Брюсов – Идеал
- Lorelei by Sylvia Plath
- They Tell Of The Warsaw Uprising by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Ольга Берггольц – Мы предчувствовали полыханье
- Николай Огарев – В прогулке поздней видел я
- Ольга Берггольц – От сердца к сердцу
- I Saw His Round Mouth’s Crimson by Wilfred Owen
- Lover’s Gifts LII: Tired of Waiting by Rabindranath Tagore
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 16. I Envy not in any Moods poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- A Certain Kind of Holy Men
- Алексей Жемчужников – Весна
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ель и берёза
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 Высоцкий – Дела
- Владимир Высоцкий – Давно, в эпоху мрачного язычества
- Владимир Высоцкий – Давайте я спою вам в подражанье радиолам
- Владимир Высоцкий – Иноходец
- Владимир Высоцкий – И в Дубне, и на Таганке что-то ставят, что-то строят
- Владимир Высоцкий – И сегодня, и намедни
- Владимир Высоцкий – И душа, и голова, кажись, болит
- Владимир Высоцкий – Грусть моя, тоска моя
- Владимир Высоцкий – Грицюку
- Владимир Высоцкий – Граждане, ах, сколько ж я не пел
- Владимир Высоцкий – Говорят, лезу прямо под нож
- Владимир Высоцкий – Наши добрые зрители
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нараспашку, при любой погоде
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нам вчера прислали из рук вон плохую весть
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нам говорят без всякой лести
- Владимир Высоцкий – Надпись на афише Смехову к 400-му спектаклю «Антимиры»
- Владимир Высоцкий – Надо с кем-то рассорить кого-то
- Владимир Высоцкий – Набросок песни к к/ф “Вооружён и очень опасен”
- Владимир Высоцкий – Наброски песен к несостоявшемуся спектаклю по сказкам Шергина
- Владимир Высоцкий – Набат
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
