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 Garden by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace’s Third Book, beginning thus:— “Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea.” by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• O fortunatus nimium, etc., a translation out of Virgil by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• The Essay on Agriculture by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• Obscurity, the Essay and Poems on Obscurity by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• The Death Of A Fly by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Changeling by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Breast by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Autopsy by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Alfresco Moment by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• A Performance At Hog Theater by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Erasing Amyloo by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• On The Eating Of Mice by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Closet by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Soup Song by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Bridge by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Mr. Brain by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• One Lonely Afternoon by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Ape And Coffee by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Accidents by Russell Edson by Russel Edson

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