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 Florilegium poem – Alfred Austin
- Гавриил Державин – Амур и Психея
- How a Little Girl Sang by Vachel Lindsay
- Ballade Of Worldly Wealth poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Leda And The Swan by William Butler Yeats
- The Solitary Oak On Mount Kremlin Bicetre
- Of Clementina by Walter Savage Landor
- Омар Хайям – Даже с самой прекрасной из милых подруг
- Invitation To The Redbreast by William Cowper
- On The Queen’s Visit To London, The Night Of The 17th March 1789 by William Cowper
- haiku
- A dragonfly that committed suicide by Preeth Nambiar
- Jewels by Sara Teasdale
- Across Kansas by William Stafford
- Огюст Барбье – Любовь к песням
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
- Robert Burns: Come, Let Me Take Thee To My Breast:
- Robert Burns: Phillis The Queen O’ The Fair:
- Robert Burns: Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad:
- Robert Burns: By Allan Stream:
- Robert Burns: Had I A Cave:
- Robert Burns: Phillis The Fair:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On The Laird Of Laggan:
- Robert Burns: Epigrams Against The Earl Of Galloway:
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On A Lap-Dog Named Echo:
- Robert Burns: Bonie Jean-A Ballad:
- Robert Burns: O Were My Love Yon Lilac Fair:
- Robert Burns: Blythe Hae I been On Yon Hill:
- Robert Burns: Logan Braes:
- Robert Burns: The Last Time I Came O’er The Moor:
- Robert Burns: Impromptu On General Dumourier’s Desertion From The French Republican Army:
- Robert Burns: Grace Before And After Meat :
- Robert Burns: Grace After Meat:
- Robert Burns: Extempore Reply To An Invitation:
- Robert Burns: Kirk and State Excisemen:
- Robert Burns: The Raptures Of Folly:
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
