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The back cover of As soon as Upon A Time in Vietnam by Jerry Neren, (Pearl Editions, 104 pp., $14. 95, paper), a great book of poetry, notifies us that the author "served in the United States militaries." No information are offered about his service. This small book, the winner of the 2010 Pearl Poetry Prize., includes a beautiful and awful cover by Marilyn Johnson that shows a stag in the forest with an arrow through his neck.

Neren's Preface inform us that "the story tracks a young guy from the time he is drafted into the Army right out of college; suffers a complete psychological breakdown during his tour of combat task; continues to have problem with his psychological wound up to his return home; and finally finds a way to rebuild his demolished life." The reader encounters "soldiers poisoned by Agent Orange" in the very first area of the book, set in Basic Training, which provided me a shock.

The expression used to describe the victims of Agent Orange hit me tough: "their insides devoured like plankton by a whale." I know firsthand how that feels. I Found This Interesting produces two characters: Eugene and Dominick, classical music-loving buddies who graduate from college, are prepared, and are sent together to Vietnam.

Eugene goes insane. He then languishes in VA care from age 24 to age 41, that chunk of his life lost forever. The story of Eugene and Dominick is informed in 4 areas: The Prologue covers boot camp. Part One, "The Battle Front," deals with how the killing is done in Vietnam.

Part 3 briefly reveals us the "New World." This gorgeous, lyrical narrative poem touches a lot of the exact same bases that numerous memoirs and books and narratives do, consisting of Agent Orange and the taking of human ears. However in this poem we get "oceans of Representative Orange" and "pendants made from human ears." We learn the story of Eugene, who, like a chameleon, "handled the color of Vietnam: the color of insanity." If I were still teaching college course on the Vietnam War, I would make As soon as Upon a Time in Vietnam a required text.