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 Do’set Militia by William Barnes
- Robert Burns: My Love, She’s But A Lassie Yet:
- Robert Burns: Lines To Mr. John Kennedy:
- A Wreath Of Immortelles poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- sacrifice_and_love.html
- The Silence In The Church
- Off the Turnpike poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- English Poetry. Percy Bysshe Shelley. Satan Broken Loose. Перси Биши Шелли. Тень Ада
- Grief An’ Gladness by William Barnes
- pathos_is_the_skyward_tanka.html
- Myself and Mine. by Walt Whitman
- Dirty Ol’ Me by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Разлука
- The Torture Of Cuauhtemoc
- God Of Roads by Yvor Winters
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
- In Praise Of England poem – Alfred Austin
- Impromptu: To Frances Garnet Wolseley poem – Alfred Austin
- “`If you were mine, if you were mine” poem – Alfred Austin
- If I To You But Sorry Bring poem – Alfred Austin
- I Chide Not At The Seasons poem – Alfred Austin
- Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin
- “Here, where the vine and fig bask hand in hand,” poem – Alfred Austin
- “Here have I learnt the little that I know” poem – Alfred Austin
- Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin
- Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin
- “Give me October’s meditative haze” poem – Alfred Austin
- “Give me a roof where Wisdom dwells” poem – Alfred Austin
- “For where, beneath one’s parent sky” poem – Alfred Austin
- “`Father, farewell! Be not distressed” poem – Alfred Austin
- Farewell To Spring poem – Alfred Austin
- Farewell To Italy poem – Alfred Austin
- Dedication To The Edition Of 1876 To H.J.A. poem – Alfred Austin
- Dedication To Lady Windsor poem – Alfred Austin
- “`Covet who will the patronage of Kings ” poem – Alfred Austin
- “Could I but leave men wiser by my song ” poem – Alfred Austin
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