Map of Daily Life

What did you do during the war I ask him
and he replies, "What everyone else did
and then some:

chiefly I was there to make maps,
to draw out our victories with lines
of pitch ink, maps to show Polk our victories;

I did this at night and during the day I fought,
they gave me a rifle and sent me out,
made me stay at the rear of the line

since I was too valuable to lose I knew calligraphy
and I was glad for it them sending me out with the men
else I would have felt an impostor or eunuch

me with only the pen in my hands
and them with their long rifles
so during the day we fired our guns,

four hundred, five hundred, six hundred killed
and at night I'd make a line along the rio;
the next day

three hundred killed,
four hundred,
and I'd make a line."