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, says 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