"APO 96225"

"But his mother-reading between the lines as mothers
always do-wrote back,
'We're quite concerned. Tell us what it's really like.'"

I felt like this poem was easy to understand. It definitly pegged the idea about mothers always reading into things way too much.  My mom does the exact same thing.  She always thinks there is more to what I am saying when there is not.  It also shows that people can't always handle the truth.  The speaker was trying to "sugar coat" what was happening for his mother, but she kept asking for him to tell her the truth. So, at his mother's request, he told her what he really did and she got really upset.  This relates to how Americans viewed the war in Vietnam.  They did not really care what was happing in Vietnam as long as they did not know or hear about it.