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 

• Halo by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Grey eyed Goddess by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Everything ends by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Damned by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Compromising my ego by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Both ways I lose by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Blue flower by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Blue eyes by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• Be there for me by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• An ode to you by Tanisha Avarsekar by Poetry In English
• What time are we living in by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• Villanelle: Oscar Victorius by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• To the author(s) of Manimekalai by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• To Don Quixote, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s A Don Quichotte by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• To a woman, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: A une femme by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• To a person, they say, frigid, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: A celle que l’on fit froide by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• The Virgin Maid of Orleans, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: La Pucelle by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• The Evening Soup, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: La Soupe du soir by T. Wignesan by Poetry In English
• Prison Souvenirs, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English
• Prayer, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan. by Poetry In English

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