Do you recall those bleak Korean hills—
That odour only one place in the world contains?
And when you think how boyhood slipped away
Between the muddy uchis and the snowbound tents
Diesel stoves blazing on a jerry–can drip
Fat dead enemy swelling on the wire
Those wild dogs running packs, the trumpets blare
The icy Imjin waters and the corpse’s stare—
Do you recall that last curtain call
In a place nobody ever really wanted?