Poem 3: Poetry Response

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

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 its 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. 

Just like most of the short poems on the list this poem is straight to the point but at the same time has a deep impact. After reading I assumed this poem is taking place during World War 2 since Jarrell was alive during the time, as well as the line that spoke about the dead gunners 'wet fur froze' which made me think that the battle that he was fighting in took place in Germany or in one of those European countries. It was interesting that Jarrell decided to use mother in a poem about death, when mothers represent life and fertility. To me that line showed me two things. First that it showed how he has lost his innocents and second that he went from life to death. But then in the second line he says "I was hunched in its belly" I knew he was talking about the turret.

I was actually having a really hard time writing about this poem and decided to talk about talk to Eva to spark some ideas. As I was going through each line with her and explaining the ways that I was viewing it, as I spoke about the mother part she began explaining how the gun turret is a womb and as we started connecting this idea of the turret being a womb he finally clicked. The Gunner could be seen as an aborted baby *mindblown*
So first when they spoke about how cold and dark it was made me think of the baby starting to die in the womb. Then they spoke about being six miles from Earth meaning that the child was going to be born in 6 months OR THAT CHILD WAS GOING TO BE SIX FEET UNDER * mind blown even more*
The nightmare fighters can be seen as the doctors that are doing this procedure and when it says "I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose" THAT'S THEM TAKING THE BABY OUT OF THE WOMB **EXPLOSION**