the boys i mean are not refined

I'm a poet, or I write these tangles of words that some may call (derogatorily) poems. As such, I'm constantly thinking about those twisted spells -mine or others'- in all my waking hours (Sorry Slothy, your honeydew voice is a close second, I swear). All the talk on Thursday and on the blog about the corrupting force of war made me reflect on some of the war-time poets I knew: Whitman, Jones, Owen, even Homer. Then, I recalled a specific poem by one Edward Estlin Cummings called "the boys i mean are not refined."

This poem, with it's impish rhyme scheme and insatiable wit immediately reminds me of Animal Mother from FMJ, though it could really relate to many characters from either film. It has the same blend of carnage and crass humor that Kubrick displays throughout FMJ. Where SK has girls who are "so horny" and will "love you long time," Cummings has "girls that buck and bite" and "masturbate with dynomite." Kubrick matches Cumming's "kill like you would take a piss" with Pyle's murder/suicide in the pisser. Joker's smartass remarks about the duality of man mirror "they speak whatever's on their minds / they do whatever's in their pants." All of the characters in FMJ (and Platoon, for that matter) "[shook] the mountains when they [danced]."

We've said that part of the reason 'Nam was so difficult for the soldiers was because they didn't believe in what they were fighting for. E. E. Cummings was a WWI vet, meaning he fought (well, he was an ambulance driver, but you get the point) in a war with a clear enemy and reason for being there (Speilberg's WWII flicks anyone?) and he still hated it, still was disgruntled, and still thought war was not the answer.

'Nam isn't the only war that turned men into monsters. While not having a reason for being there can't have helped, the real reason the boys we're talking about are not refined is because war is a cruel, cruel bitch, no matter what the era or the cause.