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:
- A Wintry Picture poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Маяковский – Ты не пошел на фронт бить барона?.. (РОСТА №451)
- Soliloquy In A Tub poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Song Maker by Sara Teasdale
- Такахама Кёси – Как никогда
- The Time I Like Best by Roger McGough
- was it you, mooon? by Raj Arumugam
- Moony Affair by Satish Verma
- Владимир Высоцкий – Вы были у Беллы
- minding love by Raj Arumugam
- I Shout Love by Milton Acorn
- The Irish Unionist’s farewell to Greta Hellastrom in 1922 poem – John Betjeman poems
- After Long Silence by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: I’ll Go And Be A Sodger:
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
- Groupie poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Glacier poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Ghouls parade poem – Brako Attafua poems | Poetry Monster
- Ghouls’ Parade poem – Brako Attafua poems | Poetry Monster
- Gazel poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
- Fantasy poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Drying Clothes poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Destiny poem – Zubair Ahmad Parray poems | Poetry Monster
- Bloodstains from Iraq poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Autumn poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Adieu poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
- About Troy poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster
- A Faery’s Lament poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- A Visit to Yu’s Cave poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- A Knocker poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster
- A Ballad That We Do Not Perish poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster
- One Night, The Fukien Robbers poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- O My Lord, Your Dwelling Places Are Lovely poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster
- Not Speaking Of The Way poem – Yosano Akiko poems | Poetry Monster
- My Sweet Lad You Have Not Been Lost poem – Yiannis Ritsos poems | Poetry Monster
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.