And a knife stuck in his chest.”

That’s the swing of the most noted poem of the tropics, “The Far East,” an excerpt from which follows, is familiar to Philippine war veterans:

“By the mud hole down in Subic

Looking lazy at the bay,

There’s a goo-goo dame awaiting,

And I think I hear her say:

‘Come you back you malo soldier

Come you back from o’er the sea,

Come you back and pay your jaw-bone,

Por-a-que! You jaw-bone me?’”