That we may wander o’er this ****** field To book our dead, and then to bury them
-Henry V IV.vii.75-76
It wasn’t the fourth of July, but it was about then Near the Cambodian border, on the Vam Co Tay Searching for two American airman whose machine had gone down Down, down into the steaming green Vam Co Tay
Bloated and floating, quite still when we saw them The sloshy prop wash bumped them about a bit Empty eye sockets, mouths open in silent screams We poncho-linered their bodies aboard the boat
Cigarettes of despair against the stench and rot This was not what we sang about in school