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 

• Юрий Галансков – Мне больно by Поэзия На Русском
• Юрий Галансков – Человеческий манифест by Поэзия На Русском
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• Юрий Левитанский – Не брести мне сушею by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Мое поколение by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Кто-то так уже писал by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Кинематограф by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Как зарок от суесловья, как залог by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Иронический человек by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Грач над березовой чащей by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Диалог у новогодней елки by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Что я знаю про стороны света by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Человек, строящий воздушные замки by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Левитанский – Белый снег by Юрий Левитанский
• Юрий Верховский – Зачем, паук, уходишь торопливо by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – Вариации на тему Пушкина by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – В майское утро by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – Судьба с судьбой by Юрий Верховский
• Юрий Верховский – Рождественскою ночью by Юрий Верховский

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