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 

• Waking In March by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Told by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• They Feed They Lion by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Then by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The New World by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The Helmet by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• The Distant Winter by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Gangrene by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Noon by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Making Light Of It by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Making It Work by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Magpiety by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Mad Day In March by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• M. Degas Teaches Art & Science At Durfee Intermediate School–Detroit, 1942 by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Late Moon by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Late Light by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Last Words by Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine
• Philip Levine – Philip Levine by Philip Levine

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