APO 96225 -- Sweetest Title of a Poem. Ever.

Ok, so, it may be offensive to admit it, but this one was a sort of guilty pleasure for me.  I really liked it; 'twas my definite favorite of the last set.  The reason I believe I connected so well with APO 96225 by Larry Rottmann (and yet also the reason I feel bad about liking it at the same time) is because of the summer reading we did over The Things They Carried.  Even if this war poem weren't based around the Vietnam Era, O'Brien's novel still would've pertained.  The author perfectly depicts America's fake, two-faced approach towards war through the use of a mother and her fighting son's exchanging of letters.  Even when the son tries to protect his mother by holding out on the truth, she continually presses him for information as to what the war is really like and implores him to go past "'Dear Mom, sure rains a lot here.'"  The irony appears when the son truly reveals what the life of an American soldier stationed in Vietnam is like, "'Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm on women and children'", and the father rights back saying, "'Please don't write such depressing letters. You're upsetting your mother.'"  This whole situation fit so well with what O'Brien's character repeatedly tried to prove about America showing empathy, but only to the extent of where it's not an inconvenience.  I don't blame her.