The poem by Brian Turner, written with the experiences of the Iraq war fresh in his mind, is a challenge towards a personified bullet. Turner vividly describes the bullets actions within the human body. Starting from the flesh outside, muscles into the depth, breaking a bone and rupturing the aorta. He goes on to mention the process of the body's reaction, the injury being signaled by the nervous system. This in depth description can be seen as a symbol of the fragility, but also of the complexity of the human body. While the language is very clinical, Turner uses scientific terminology like clavicle and aorta, the emotion carried by the description is strong. Turner directly challenges the bullet to do its unholy work and finish its journey.
This starts the second part of the poem. While there is no clear separation between the lines, the mood of the words changes. The clear challenge to the bullet becomes direct. The narrator taunts the bullet that its power ends where the soldiers will starts. The narrator tells it that his words, his final dying breaths are still his and not dictated by the bullet. The final words in the poem "this is where the world ends, every time", can be interpreted as a grim reminder of the futility of war, but also in reference to the mental strength shown before. The soldier's world ends in a state of strength, not in one of pain and surrender. While poetry is always personal, war time poetry as strong and direct as this one, always has a sense of both.
War time poetry is always hard to digest for the audience, as war in itself is a grisly topic. Turner's version of it is different in that it is strongly neutral. Here, Bullet shows no affiliation with any political side of any war, it is the experience of a soldier hit by a bullet. While Turner himself was part of the American Army during the Iraq war, his poetry speaks of a more universal pain. There is no mention of the greater goal, no reasoning, just the story of a single soldier in his final moments. In this simplicity the poem Here, Bullet shows a lot of strength.
