{"id":4599,"date":"2023-05-19T12:24:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T19:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=4599"},"modified":"2024-12-06T09:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T17:11:36","slug":"two-war-poems-by-hugh-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/two-war-poems-by-hugh-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Two War Poems by Hugh Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"issue67\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 67<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Two War Poems by Hugh Martin<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Friday Night, FOB Cobra<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith, shirtless, curls forty-pond dumbbells,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

veins burst, worms over biceps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curls are part of his plan for home:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a sex life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On burn detail, Ritchey stirs shit with a metal rod,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

asks Carter–standing back with a smoke–Doesn’t it make you<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

hungry?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones’ brother sent him a twelve-pack<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of Ultra Sensitive LifeStyle condoms. The box reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

almost like wearing nothing at all<\/em>. He cuts it out,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tapes it to the front of his flak vest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sergent Thomson has been in so many fights,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

there is no cartilage left in his nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In line for the phone, he shows us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bending it like an ear with one finger,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

flat against his cheek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kellerman’s wife divorced him over e-mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked why his hands are so hairy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenson says, with a cup of coffee and a ball of wet Copenhagen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bulging beneath his lip, I ain’t a fuckin’ girl<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sips four pots a day, changes the grinds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

once a week. The coffee tastes of steam and heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Tower Ten, Stevens discusses mutual funds,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

interest rates. He says a young guy like me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

might spend all his money on a bike, a truck, a house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s taking his wife<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for a cruise, investing the rest,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and that’s what you do with money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On marriage, Perry says, It ain’t like that<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You think you just walk in the door,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and she hands you a beer,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

gives you a blowjob<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It ain’t like that<\/em>, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just wait,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

it ain’t like that<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ski boils water in a canteen cup,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

adds ramen, slices of expired Slim Jims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He discusses the meaty juices, how the heat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sucks them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meal is sacred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sprinkling hot sauce over cold, boiled potatos<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demson talks about reading the paper, the names<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us know he’s slept with ninty-seven<\/p>\n\n\n\n

women. After we finish our food, he tells us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

about one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observation Post<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanley spits strings of saliva-laced dip into cracks of gravel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hours ago, a dud dropped on the south side of the FOB,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sent up a breath of dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marwan, the interpreter, drives to the entrance gate,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

picks up his two boys. Their summer job: filling sandbags for dinars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One mile down the road, at the intersection,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a three round burst, a precise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

incision through the windshield. Neck, mouth, nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Humvee, we drive the captain and find the two boys<\/p>\n\n\n\n

crouched together, hands over their head on the floor,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

their father wet on their bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captian takes a photo, and we lean<\/p>\n\n\n\n

toward the backseat window,  as he points to red scrapes of Marwan,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bedside the seatbelt buckle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, he’ll show everyone, magnifying the camera’s screen,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s skull right there, that’s skull, as if needing others to agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We watch crow carry the body bag<\/p>\n\n\n\n

through Sadiyah’s streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peshmerga arrived in jeeps with RPGs, Kalashnikovs;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

they drag suspects to the police station,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

where they’ll take turns with the rifle-butting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m cleaning my fingernails with a Gerber; Hanley whispers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shooting star. When I look, he says, Go fuck yourself. Before dawn,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we see movement in the retreating darkness. Through the binos: a donkey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mounts another in a field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When our relief shows up, we say if they’re bored,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

there’s two donkeys fucking at three o’clock;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a dud hit before midnight; and Marwan is dead.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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