This is one of my favorite poems from Dusty, an Army nurse who served in Vietnam.
"DEROS (1968)" ~Dusty
Wobbling down the jetway in unaccustomed pumps
the confines of a Class A skirt impeding my progress
stateside stockings rubbing raw my nerves
a freakish fraud in back-in-the-World drag
I wish only for familiar fatigues.
Coping with crowds of vast, turbulent hurry
I take no notice of the college kids
(ordinary sight on this part of the planet)
so clean-cut they could be from Kansas--
until the beer cans hit their mark
one splashing my skirt, another dinging my shin.
Stunned, I ponder the existential question:
were those beer cans half empty
or half full?