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 

• A Fable by William Cowper by William Cowper
• A Comparison by William Cowper by William Cowper
• A Comparison. Addressed To A Young Lady by William Cowper by William Cowper
• A Child Of God Longing To See Him Beloved by William Cowper by William Cowper
• William Ellery Leonard – William Ellery Leonard by William Ellery Leonard
• Wayside Flowers by William Allingham by William Allingham
• These Little Songs by William Allingham by William Allingham
• The Touchstone by William Allingham by William Allingham
• The Little Dell by William Allingham by William Allingham
• The Fairies by William Allingham by William Allingham
• The Eviction by William Allingham by William Allingham
• The Boy by William Allingham by William Allingham
• Robin Redbreast by William Allingham by William Allingham
• Places and Men by William Allingham by William Allingham
• On a Forenoon of Spring by William Allingham by William Allingham
• Meadowsweet by William Allingham by William Allingham
• Lepracaun or Fairy Shoemaker, The by William Allingham by William Allingham
• Late Autumn by William Allingham by William Allingham
• William Allingham – William Allingham by William Allingham
• In Snow by William Allingham by William Allingham

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