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 

• Kinetic Poem 2 by Roger McGough by Poetry In English
• Jazz by Roland Bastien by Poetry In English
• Goodbat Nightman by Roger McGough by Poetry In English
• First Day at School by Roger McGough by Poetry In English
• Did you call me Love by Rohini bhatia singh by Poetry In English
• Cauls of Haw by Roland Bastien by Poetry In English
• Cake by Roger McGough by Poetry In English
• Beguiling by Roger McGough by Poetry In English
• You Look Up Pictures of Icelandic Ponies by Ruth Madievsky by Poetry In English
• Words Of Advice by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Who is the Bogeyman? by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English
• Wherever You Go, There You Are by Ryssel Guzman by Poetry In English
• We Miss You So Much by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Trial by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• To A Wife, On Mother’s Day by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Tiger Drinking at Forest Pool by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Threads of Gold by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Thoughts by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• The useless counsellor by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English
• The tragic tale of Bobby Magee by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English

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