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

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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