A poem by Alan Dugan
For old Billy Dugan, shot in the ass in the Civil War, my father said.
The old wound in my ass
has opened up again, but I
am past the prodigies
of youth’s campaigns, and weep
where I used to laugh
in war’s red humors, half
in love with silly-assed pains
and half not feeling them.
I have to sit up with
an indoor unsittable itch
before I go down late
and weeping to the storm-
cellar on a dirty night
and go to bed with the worms.
So pull the dirt up over me
and make a family joke
for Old Billy Blue Balls,
the oldest private in the world
with two ass-holes and no
place more to go to for a laugh
except the last one. Say:
The North won the Civil War
without much help from me
although I wear a proof
of the war’s obscenity.

A few random poems:
- Юнна Мориц – Котик
- The Red Lacquer Music-Stand poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Маяковский – Рассказ о Климе, купившем заем, и Прове, не подумавшем о счастье своем
- Behind a Wall poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Николай Гумилев – Молитва мастеров
- Conviction (iii) by Stevie Smith
- Telescope by Mark R Slaughter
- Ode To A Loved One by Sappho
- Sussex by Rudyard Kipling
- Security by William Stafford
- Edgar Allan Poe by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- A Thought From Propertius by William Butler Yeats
- Иван Варавва – Выйду в степь, на поля плодородные
- Epistle to Colonel de Peyster by Robert Burns
- The Curse Of Cromwell 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
- Address to the Toothache by Robert Burns
- Address to the shade of Thomson by Robert Burns
- Address to the Deil by Robert Burns
- Address to Edinburgh by Robert Burns
- Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns
- Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle by Robert Burns
- Adam Armour’s Prayer by Robert Burns
- A Winter Night by Robert Burns
- A Vision by Robert Burns
- A Tippling Ballad—When Princes and Prelates, etc. by Robert Burns
- A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
- A Prayer under the Pressure of Violent Anguish by Robert Burns
- A Prayer in the Prospect of Death by Robert Burns
- A Poet’s Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter by Robert Burns
- A New Psalm for the Chapel of Kilmarnock by Robert Burns
- A Mother’s Lament for her Son’s Death by Robert Burns
- A Grace before Dinner by Robert Burns
- A Grace after Dinner by Robert Burns
- News, lassies, news (Song) by Robert Burns
- Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet (Song) by Robert Burns
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
Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.