Dead Poets Society #35 Randall Jarrell: The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

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 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.