Portrait From The Infantry

A poem by Alan Dugan

He smelled bad and was red-eyed with the miseries

of being scared while sleepless when he said

this: “I want a private woman, peace and quiet,

and some green stuff in my pocket. Fuck

the rest.” Pity the underwear and socks,

long burnt, of an accomplished murderer,

oh God, of germans and replacements, who

refused three stripes to keep his B.A.R.,

who fought, fought not to fight some days

like any good small businessman of war,

and dug more holes than an outside dog

to modify some Freudian’s thesis: “No

man can stand three hundred days

of fear of mutilation and death.” What he

theorized was a joke: “To keep a tight

asshole, dry socks and a you-deep hole

with you at all times.” Afterwards,

met in a sports shirt with a round wife, he was

the clean slave of a daughter, a power brake

and beer. To me, he seemed diminished

in his dream, or else enlarged, who knows?,

by its accomplishment: personal life

wrung from mass issues in a bloody time

and lived out hiddenly. Aside from sound

baseball talk, his only interesting remark

was, in pointing to his wife’s belly, “If

he comes out left foot first” (the way

you Forward March!), “I am going to stuff

him back up.” “Isn’t he awful?” she said.

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Poems in English 

• The Poetic Principle by Mark Olynyk by Poetry In English
• She and Drugs by Mark R Slaughter by Poetry In English
• The Other Side of Panic by Martina Reisz Newberry by Poetry In English
• Sculpture of Debris on the Waterfront by Martina Reisz Newberry by Poetry In English
• Question mark remarks by Mark Miller by Poetry In English
• The joyful things in life by Martin Smith by Poetry In English
• The Frantic by Mark Miller by Poetry In English
• Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry by Poetry In English
• The End of the Argument by Martina Reisz Newberry by Poetry In English
• My Father’s Hats by Mark Irwin by Poetry In English
• The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• The Dragon and The Unicorn by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• Please Don’t Judas Me by Mark Miller by Poetry In English
• Never Sure Which You Are by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain by Poetry In English
• Nestling by Mark R Slaughter by Poetry In English
• The Homeless Man by Mary TallMountain by Poetry In English
• My Words Embrace by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• Telescope by Mark R Slaughter by Poetry In English
• My Mother On An Evening In Late Summer by Mark Strand by Poetry In English

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