1. »  Here, Bullet: Iraq Soldier Describes War in Poetry [NPR]

    soldierporn:

    Eulogy

    It happens on a

    Monday, at 11:20

    A.M.,

    as tower guards eat

    sandwiches

    and seagulls drift by

    on the Tigris River.

    Prisoners tilt their

    heads to the west

    though burlap sacks

    and duct tape blind

    them.

    The sound

    reverberates down

    concertina coils

    the way piano wire

    thrums when given

    slack.

    And it happens like

    this, on a blue day of

    sun,

    when Private Miller

    pulls the trigger

    to take brass and fire

    into his mouth:

    the sound lifts the

    birds up off the water,

    a mongoose pauses

    under the orange

    trees,

    and nothing can stop

    it now, no matter what

    blur of motion

    surrounds him, no

    matter what voices

    crackle over the radio

    in static confusion,

    because if only for

    this moment the earth

    is stilled,

    and Private Miller has

    found what low hush

    there is

    down in the

    eucalyptus shade,

    there by the river.

    In memory of PFC B. Miller (1980-March 22, 2004)

    Brian Turner is a soldier-poet who served for seven years in the U.S. Army. Beginning in November 2003, he was an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

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