Here, Bullet.

I listened to this Guardian podcast tonight. Brian Turner is a part-time poetry professor in the Bay Area and a soldier who recently served in Iraq. I was struck by what, to my mind, was an odd combination of career choices. Turns out he was another statistic of poor folk who paid for their eductation by enrolling in what seemed like a pre-9/11 peacetime army (e.g. domestic service or at best short peacekeeping operations in Bosnia), and would up on the frontline in places like Mosul or Tikrit.

He's immortalised his time in a collection of poetry entitled 'Here, Bullet'. Through the gravel in his voice, he delivered pictures of dehumanising hatred and heavenly light, each almost impossible to conceive. I wasn't bowled over, but the candid report of vistas which thankfully few of us will ever see was enough to encourage me to post the link.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/audio/2008/mar/31/book.club.brian.turner