Produced by Blue Trumpet for Radio 2RRR, Jove’s Pearls is a collection of verse 'chiefly in the Australian vernacular' by Jovial Mark ... painter, poet, dilettante, and ratbag, hailing from the deep south of South Australia...
The poem...
In a ville in Vietnam
Wasting dinks, it was a scam
Then we took it on the lam
In a ville in Vietnam
In a ville in Vietnam
Double veterans we becam
M16s goin’ blam! blam! blam!
In a ville in Vietnam
In a ville in Vietnam
Rice bunker hides Victor Charlie man
Crackadill! Crackadill! moma san
In a ville in Vietnam
In a ville in Vietnam
Zippo raid burns sod huts down
Me #10, worst grunt aroun’
In a ville in Vietnam
In a bar in Vietnam
China White bought by the gram
No fugazzi, you do mommie, girlie san
In a bar in Vietnam
In a hooch in Vietnam
Eatin’ cans of bean ‘n ham
FNG don’t know where he am
In a hooch in Vietnam
Notes...
- When a soldier raped a woman and then killed her, he was said to have become a ‘double veteran’
- ‘Crackadill’, kill
- ‘Number 10’, the worst
- ‘grunt’, combat soldier
- ‘China White’, pure form of herion
- ‘fugazi’, fuckup
- ‘you do mommie’, transliteration of Vietnamese ‘du ma’, literally ‘fuck mother’
- ‘FNG’, Fucking New Guy
Music...
Music featured in the poem comes from 'Summertime' as interpreted by Janis Joplin, 1969.
Credits...
Produced by Blue Trumpet for Radio 2RRR
Original verse by Jovial Mark
Adapted for radio by James Benn
With special thanks to Johnny Boxer
Poems interpreted by…
- Johnny Boxer
- James Benn
Introductions and credits by Amie Maguire