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 continued bombing me
Incessantly.

Dig in Vienn 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, as 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 potiential 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.