Bringing the "Out" Back "In"

I, like probably many of you, thought war poetry went out of style somewhere between Wilfred Owen and "The Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner." Guess what, Private Pyle, you got served!

Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting

Kevin C. Powers

I tell her I love her like not killing   
or ten minutes of sleep   
beneath the low rooftop wall   
on which my rifle rests.   


I tell her in a letter that will stink,   
when she opens it,   
of bolt oil and burned powder   
and the things it says.   


I tell her how Pvt. Bartle says, offhand,   
that war is just us   
making little pieces of metal   
pass through each other.




Another one from the most recent Iraq conflict. But I think the best part is how it's a war poem not about war at all. Despite the grimy fear and exhaustion alluded to, there's a certain elegance and beauty in the style, turning killing into just another thing humans do, like love or letters. I don't know if it's a weakness in the poem. But I don't think it is.