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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• He, who was born poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• Halls grew darker poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• Gamajun, the Prophetic Bird poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• Don’t fear death poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• A Girl Sang a Song poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• A Girl Was Singing In A Church Choir poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster by Александр Блок
• The Wizard Way poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Twins poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
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• The Pentagram poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Neophyte poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Mantra-Yoga poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Interpreter poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Hermit poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Hawk and the Babe poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley
• The Garden of Janus poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster by Aleister Crowley

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