Monday, March 24, 2008

4K

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That poem is hard to forget...

"A ball turret was a plexiglass sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24 bomber and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine-guns and one man, a short, small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine-guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below, he revolved the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the foetus in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with canon firing explosive shells. The hose was a steam hose." (Jarrell's notes)"

Anonymous said...

Looks like someone's afraid to discuss Dancing With the Stars! Did you watch last night? Monica Seles and Penn Gillette were voted off in the first ever double elimination! It was great!

Anonymous said...

Why are you so afraid of discussing Dancing With the Stars? Are you afraid? Of course you are - you're a pussy.

Freewayblogger said...

They shoot horses, don't they?

Anonymous said...

No, they DANCE!!!! It's a really good show. You should check it out tomorrow (Monday)... Good times!