In another war they would have drug him
into the jungle and shot him for desertion
Instead, he caught the lie and farce
just off the plane at Ton Son Nhut
from the mama-san in the latrine who
spat beetle nut juice in his face
“Hey, I don’t need this shit,”
he said right off, and hopped
a chopper from one base camp to another
until his orders back to The World were cut
We cheered that he never get caught, hoped
he’d join Vietnam Veterans Against The War
and march in our place
Unlike Clinton, Cheney and Newt
he ran out of deferments;
like them, he knew a loser
once he spotted one