Wrote this about several nights of fun and games on Hill 875 in VN.
Verdant Woods
Jungles smelling of decay, sweating, suffocating heat,
Stinking fungus, rotting sox, wet and tired feet.
Dengue and malarial fever, liver flukes and leeches,
Those verdant woods a far cry from Vung Tau's sandy beaches.
Scorpions, Cobras, great variety of very poisonous snakes,
Some strike to kill some cause blindness like the Banded Krait.
Food's sweet residue on our breath, lips gnawed by rats,
Stealthy nighttime creatures, rodents large as cats.
Mosquitoes in the millions buzzing noisily around our heads,
Wondering if morning will find us all alive or dead.
Watching intently in the darkness for VC and NVA,
Praying earnestly to God to see the light of day.
Stench of blood and rotting corpses lay all round about,
Nostrils recoil while maggots roil the course of war in doubt.
Demonstrations in the streets, flags burning way back there,
There is nothing in the records saying war is ever fair.