My Vien Ilin

...And when I was seventeen,
I made myself a DMZ,
But they continued bombing me
Hot and steadily.

They divided me at seventeen --
I declared myself a DMZ,
But they continue bombing me
Incessantly.

Dig in Vien Ilin, dig in today --
The Americans are on their way.
American bombs away!
Dig in today!

We make our days as they make us,
As I must, as Odysseus,
Make myself my own Telemachus.
"Bous Stephanos, Stephanoumenos Dedalus!"

And if it hasn't been a bust,
Then "land-ho, Ulysseus!"
And all of us like Dedalus:
Dead, dead all of us.

Between the dense red clay and the deep blue sea,
What horrors rage internally,
And what reactions, chemically,
Through synapses so awfully
Conducting electricity and converting less efficiently,
What potential energy
For this life of endless tunneling?

So deep beneath the DMZ,
Lightless of necessity,
Their bombs are heard incessantly.
Our days, they make us, clearly.