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:
- Федор Сологуб – В лесу живет проказник неуёмный
- Федор Сологуб – Водой спокойной отражены
- Sonnet 109: O, never say that I was false of heart by William Shakespeare
- Aquamarine Butterfly by Nina Gabriel
- Sabbath, My Love poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster
- Esteem for Chloris by Robert Burns
- Владимир Британишский – Наш учитель истории
- Robert Burns: To John Kennedy, Dumfries House:
- Adam’s Curse by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Степанов – Утёнок (Буква У)
- Ольга Берггольц – Стихи о ленинградских большевика
- Ольга Берггольц – Песня о жене патриота
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Зинаида Александрова – Ромашки
- A Fleeting Passion by William Henry Davies
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
- Il Penseroso poem – John Milton poems
- Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity poem – John Milton poems
- How Soon Hath Time poem – John Milton poems
- From ‘Samson Agonistes’ i poem – John Milton poems
- From ‘Arcades’ poem – John Milton poems
- Comus poem – John Milton poems
- At A Vacation Exercise In The Colledge, Part Latin, Part English. The Latin Speeches Ended, The English Thus Began poem – John Milton poems
- At A Solemn Musick poem – John Milton poems
- Arcades poem – John Milton poems
- Another On The Same poem – John Milton poems
- An Epitaph On The Marchioness Of Winchester poem – John Milton poems
- An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet W. Shakespeare poem – John Milton poems
- Winter Seascape poem – John Betjeman poems
- Winter Landscape poem – John Betjeman poems
- Westgate-On-Sea poem – John Betjeman poems
- Verses Turned… poem – John Betjeman poems
- Upper Lambourne poem – John Betjeman poems
- Trebetherick poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Plantster’s Vision poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Olympic Girl poem – John Betjeman poems
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.