APO 96225

In the poem, APO 96225 by Rottmann, a soldier writes to his mother. At first, he writes about the superficial events in the Vietnam War. He begins, "sure rains a lot here (Rottmann, 846)." The mother awaits for the letter and desires more information. She asks for specific events. However, the son knows that the war is not something for fragile ears. He keeps giving small, fun statements about the monkies and the sunset. Eventually, the mother demands actual information about what is occurring in the other country. The son explicitly states, " Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm on women and children (846)." Afterwards, it creates a sense of situational irony because she no longer wanted to know what actually occurred during the war.