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:
- Scorn Not The Sonnet by William Wordsworth
- Гавриил Державин – К Анжелике Кауфман
- Keeping the Dawn by Shaunna Harper
- AN HYMN TO THE MUSES by Robert Herrick
- Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney
- A Welcome by William Browne
- I have been tricked by flying too close by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Seashore by Rabindranath Tagore
- She’s Flawless by Mandy Williams
- Annus Memorabilis : Written in Commemoration of His Majesty’s Happy Recovery by William Cowper
- Psalm 87 poem – John Milton poems
- The Spring by Thomas Carew
- Николай Языков – А. В. Тихвинскому (Как знать, куда моя дорога)
- Fears In Solitude by Samuel Coleridge
- Stars
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
- Иван Мятлев – Падучая звезда
- Иван Мятлев – Приди, приди
- Иван Мятлев – Розы
- Иван Мятлев – Сельское хозяйство
- Иван Мятлев – Лютня
- Иван Мятлев – Наставление Гр[афине] Р[астопчиной]
- Иван Мятлев – Фонарики
- Иван Мятлев – Бывало
- Иван Мятлев – День рождения
- Иван Киуру – Роща заалела
- Иван Киуру – Теленок Леня
- Иван Киуру – Звездный полет
- Иван Киуру – Оазис
- Иван Киуру – От северной половины земного шара
- Иван Киуру – Песня моряка
- Иван Киуру – Человек
- Иван Киуру – Ершок с вершок
- Иван Киуру – Кот и жук
- Иван Киуру – Медовый аптекарь
- What’s wrong with volunteering?
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.