APO 96225 / Larry Rottman

“‘Please don’t write such depressing letters. You’re upsetting your mother” (Rottman 846).  This is ironic.  The father asks the son not to do what his mother asked him to do.  The mother worries and wants to know how her son is doing but when he actually tells her he gets upset. Which is better to know and be depressed or to not know and be worried?  The poem ends were it started.  The whole poem shows shortness. The letters are very brief and say nothing really important.  The only comforting thing in the son’s letters is that the parents are still getting letter meaning he is still alive.  The poem shows how war is not really something to tell anyone about even if they ask and seem to want to know they really don’t.  The title of the poem adds to the separation shown between the parents and son because it is just letters and numbers of no real importance.