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:
- Looks A-Know’d Avore by William Barnes
- Владимир Маяковский – Рабочие столицы, крестьяне окраины… (Роста №89)
- Salutation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Алексей Жемчужников – Памятник Пушкину
- Death Divine by Nithin Purple
- The Snake Charmer by Sarojini Naidu
- The Snowy Spring Is Raging Mad poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Наум Коржавин – Подмосковная платформа в апреле
- Remember the Tick by RD McManes
- Владимир Британишский – Сравнения
- Валерий Брюсов – Дрожащие листья на бледные щеки
- Robert Burns: Lines On The Author’s Death: Written With The Supposed View Of Being Handed To Rankine After The Poet’s Interment
- Ольга Ермолаева – Когда распрямлюсь, озирая работу мою
- As Consequent, Etc. by Walt Whitman
- Ianthe’s Question by Walter Savage Landor
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
- The Milk-Maid O’ The Farm by William Barnes
- The Mead A-Mow’d by William Barnes
- The Meäd In June by William Barnes
- The May-Tree by William Barnes
- The Maid Vor My Bride by William Barnes
- The Maid O’ Newton by William Barnes
- The Lovely Maïd Ov Elwell Meäd by William Barnes
- The Love Child by William Barnes
- The Little Worold by William Barnes
- The Linden On The Lawn by William Barnes
- The Lilac by William Barnes
- The Lew O’ The Rick by William Barnes
- The Leäne by William Barnes
- The Leädy’s Tower by William Barnes
- The Lark by William Barnes
- The Ivy by William Barnes
- The Hwomestead A-Vell Into Hand by William Barnes
- The Humstrum by William Barnes
- The Homestead by William Barnes
- The Hollow Woak by William Barnes
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.