A Soldier’s Reverie

The khakied body of an eighteen year old lay crouched against the damp earth on the south side of the hill.  His blood-shot eyes showed signs of sleepless nights; still he gazed intently of the hilly slopes surrounding him.  His face was covered with smudges of two-inch whiskers and his hair was a mass of snarls.  He was caked with dried mud to the waist, a souvenir of a two-month tramp through the swampy forest.  His lips were cracked, his hands chapped and bleeding. A faint drizzle began to...