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 Sleepless Night by Philip Levine
- “O you, far colder, whiter” by Torquato Tasso
- Scenes Of The Mind
- The Changeling by Russell Edson
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская пани
- Юнна Мориц – Ёжик резиновый
- Robert Burns: For The Sake O’ Somebody:
- A Conjuration To Electra by Robert Herrick
- A Traveller’s Guide to the East Indies by S. K. Kelen
- as_with_recitation_and_the_loss_of_a_kuhi.html
- Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all by William Shakespeare
- Шекспир – А это смерть – Сонет 64
- The Lover’s Song by William Butler Yeats
- How Sleep the Brave by Walter de la Mare
- Beautiful Lofty Things by William Butler Yeats
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
- Яков Полонский – Цветок
- Яков Полонский – Чтобы песня моя разлилась как поток
- Яков Полонский – Чайка
- Яков Полонский – Братья
- Яков Полонский – Блажен озлобленный поэт
- Яков Полонский – Белая ночь
- Яков Полонский – А. Н. Майкову (ответ на стихи его: Полонский! Суждено опять судьбою злою)
- Яков Полонский – Последний вздох
- Яков Полонский – После праздника
- Яков Полонский – Полонский здесь не без привета
- Яков Полонский – Поэт и гражданин, он призван был учить
- Яков Полонский – Подойди ко мне, старушка
- Яков Полонский – Поцелуй
- Яков Полонский – По горам две хмурых тучи
- Яков Полонский – Письмо
- Яков Полонский – Песня циганки
- Яков Полонский – Памяти В. М. Гаршина
- Яков Полонский – Памяти С. Я. Надсона
- Яков Полонский – Откуда
- Яков Полонский – Орел и голубка
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
