Shibboleth

One didn't know the name of Tarzan's monkey
Another couldn't strip the cellophane
From a Gl's pack of cigaretes.
By such minutiae were the infltrators detected.

By the second week ot batle
We'd become obsessed with trivia.
At a sentry point, at midnight, in the rain,
An ignorance of baseball could be lethal.

The morning of the first snowiall, I was shaving.
Staring into a mirror nailed to a tree,
Intoning the Christian names of the Andrews Sisters.
'Maxine, Laverne, Patty.'