THE LONGEST NIGHT

The night is pitch black
The moon's light is swallowed up by the jungle's bowels
So silent is the night
you have a feeling of deafness

The mind plays tricks
You see a bush move 
as your eyes scan the blackness
they dart to the bush

You stare as the sweat pouring from your forehead
stings your eyes
DAMN! You wonder how the hell you can sweat at night
crouched in a hole

The mosquitoes, you swear, are working with the enemy
You know your enemy hunts like a panther
closing the distance
the time is his to attack

There may one, there may be twenty, just a few feet from you
You pray it isn't a couple hundred
that picked your foxhole to probe
You wonder how the other two grunts seem to be sleeping

Dawn breaks
You made it through the night, confidence swells up inside of you
The bush you saw move all night is in the same place
as when you dug in earlier

You think, how in the hell am I going to make
 thirteen months of this
I wonder what the days will be like?
So this is Vietnam...

DENNIS RICHARD TENETY
 I/3/5 USMC 1969
FIRE IN THE HOLE©1991     

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