Come discuss Here, Bullet on July 12

How can anyone wrap their mind around what is happening to U.S. soldiers in Iraq? Three-minute news clips hardly do justice to such an enormous situation. In "Here, Bullet," Brian Turner gives us a chance.

Turner, who has a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Oregon, wrote most of the poems while serving as an infantry team leader in Iraq. He joined the Army in 1998 and served in Bosnia-Herzegovinia before being deployed to Mosul, Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division in 2003.

“Here, Bullet,” which contains 47 poems, was published by Alice James Books in 2005 and has since earned several prestigious awards and attracted the attention of national media.

During one interview, Turner explained his title poem, “Here, Bullet,” was a “taunt toward death” as much of a tangible expression of fear.

“That poem came out in an outburst,” Turner told The News Hour’s Jim Lehrer. “What I did was I wrote it and I don't know what this means, but I folded it up and I put it in a Ziploc bag and I put it in my left breast pocket, and I kept it with me for the remainder of my time there in my uniform.”

Here, Bullet

If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta's opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you've started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel's cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue's explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.

The book discussion about “Here, Bullet” will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the CWC Library’s upstairs conference room on Thursday, July 12. For more information, call 855-2141.