An Analysis Of Brian Turner's 'A True War Story'

Capturing the realities of war is not everyone's cup of tea. One has to be feel the emotions that inspire vivid imagery in words. True war stories can be written based off of true events that have occurred and bring out emotions in the poets who witness them. Brian Turner, author of 2000 lbs, stated in an interview that while in Iraq, he felt “very isolated from the relevance of what felt like a prior life”(poemoftheweek.com). Its seems like a split from life at home to a warzone with conflicting feelings. He began capturing his experiences of the war in the form of poetry. Brian Turner turned his Iraq war experience and his masters degree in literature and poetry into an opportunity to oppose the resolution of conflict through war. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam Warr veteran who struggled with PTSD and Turner’s opinions in his story, “2000 lbs,” share similarities with “How To Tell A True War Story”. Turner’s poem 2000 lbs describes a suicide

Real war stories are told for each of these unfortunate people and there are only tragic endings. The Iraqi taxi driver carefreely lights a Miami cigar or cigarette and his life flashes before him and he thinks of the women he lost and loved so much; Shatha. The imagery around his death has a lot of descriptions of what I conclude to; heaven, such as “flight of gold,” circles, and summer of 197. These all can represent a halo of golden light and summer as in the sunlight and heavens above taking this innocent man up. Another thing I think of when reading this poem and is connecting the fact that the suicide bomber said, “Inshallah,” is that the bomber believes he is doing this for Allah and he will go to Heaven, but yet the Quran’s translations for Jihad does not mean specifically Holy War, like many interpret it, instead it means Spiritual