The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

• This poem is very captivating to me. The language used seems odd, but after reading the footnotes it is a little more clear. This is another poem written about a soldier in war. The title lets you know that the character in the poem is going to die. The first two lines of the poem are the most unusual. I think that "the State" is his state of mind during the war. He is probably trying to zone out and think about other things while he is gunning down aircrafts. He says that he "hunched in its belly till [his] wet fur froze." "It" is the "state" that he is in. I think that this means he got so lost in the state of mind, he was damaged, or frozen. One can imagine that wet fur freezing would be a painful and cold experience, so this is a very negative connection to the way he is feeling. The next line, "Six miles from earth loosed from its dream of life" is another negative thought. I think that this means that when the plane was about six miles from the ground, he realized that he was not going to make it and that his dream for life was a lost cause. The part that strikes me as the most depressing is the 4th line, "I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters." I thought that when he awoke, he would be in heaven or in a more peaceful place, but even when he escapes and dies, he is in another nightmare. The last line is also depressing and I think that it shows the reality and harshness of war. The soldier realizes that his army cannot waste time on dead soldier and says that his dead body will just be washed away with a hose. It is hard for me to imagine feeling the way this character does. It also makes me wonder if soldiers in wars truly feel so unimportant and like they are trapped in nightmares, even when they die. This poem gives me a new respect for soldiers and the emotional and physical stress that they go through.