“A Regular Day in 1968”

by Dennis Maulsby

Olive drab Hueys dragonfly to jungle,
drop into razor-edged elephant grass.

Hot green tracers cackle past,
chunk into forty-foot Hopea trees.

Leaves and bark rip open,
sodden sweet-blonde woodchips fly.

Mortar rounds shatter treetops.
Shrapnel slaps warm-meat.

Soldiers scream like puppies.