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:
- Amarene by Rina Ferrarelli
- Алексей Плещеев – Когда твой кроткий, ясный взор
- Sleep In The Mojave Desert by Sylvia Plath
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 26. Erin, Oh Erin. Томас Мур.
- An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Nativity by William Butler Yeats
- Crush by Muhereza Louis
- Aquatic Nocturne by Sylvia Plath
- In her reach by Shailendra Chauhan
- Стефан Малларме – Подавленное тучей
- Юлий Даниэль – Дом
- Владимир Маяковский – Что такое II Интернационал?.. (РОСТА №133)
- A Mysterious Naked Man
- To A Young Writer by Yvor Winters
- Change
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
- Владимир Орлов – Летит корабль
- Владимир Орлов – Ковровые дорожки
- Владимир Орлов – Кому что снится?
- Владимир Орлов – Как Таппи научился лаять
- Владимир Орлов – Как появились ромашки
- Владимир Орлов – Где петушок носит гребешок
- Владимир Орлов – Дядя Миша на печи
- Владимир Орлов – Добрый день
- Владимир Орлов – Цветное молоко
- Владимир Орлов – Что нельзя купить
- Владимир Орлов – Белые стихи о черном пуделе
- Владимир Набоков – Забудешь ты меня, как эту ночь забудешь
- Владимир Набоков – Я на море гляжу из мраморного храма
- Владимир Набоков – Встреча
- Владимир Набоков – Воскресение мёртвых
- Владимир Набоков – Верба
- Владимир Набоков – Вдали от берега, в мерцании морском
- Владимир Набоков – В полнолунье, в гостиной пыльной и пышной
- Владимир Набоков – Ut pictura poesis
- Владимир Набоков – Ты многого, слишком ты многого хочешь
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.