{"id":3307,"date":"2010-12-01T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T05:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/nashvillereview\/?p=3307"},"modified":"2015-02-18T09:29:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T15:29:37","slug":"four-letter-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/3307","title":{"rendered":"Four-Letter Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t wanna hear that fuckin\u2019 four-letter word.<\/em>
\n– Specialist Skeen in a bar in Leesville, Louisiana,\u00a0after getting his 35th<\/sup> tattoo.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

At Fort Polk, Louisiana,
\nthe Opposition Force shoots
\nall three of us,
\nbut we enjoy this death,<\/p>\n

which gives us a chance to sit,
\nsmoke, rest our feet.\u00a0 Dying
\nis part of training
\nfor war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

We leave in two months.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

My Aunt Joan hates that I\u2019m going.
\nShe talks<\/p>\n

at the retirement home, <\/em>
\nMy nephew is going<\/em>
\nto EAR-RACK!<\/em> <\/em>
\nsaying the four-letter word<\/p>\n

like food she\u2019s trying
\nto spit out.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

Killed <\/em>
\nwhen his convoy vehicle <\/em>
\nstruck a roadside bomb<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nKilled <\/em>
\nwhen a roadside bomb <\/em>
\nhit his vehicle on a mounted patrol<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nKilled <\/em>
\nwhen his unit was ambushed <\/em>
\nwith small-arms fire<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nKilled\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

4.<\/p>\n

On the slow computer
\nin the Internet and Phone Center, I say
\nthe names of the dead.<\/p>\n

Age, hometown,
\ncause of death.<\/p>\n

IED, RPG,
\nsmall arms,
\nvehicle-rollover, car bomb\u2014
\nthings to be avoided.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

5.<\/p>\n

At home, Christmas leave.
\n <\/em>
\nThis is our son, he\u2019s going to Iraq.<\/em>
\nHe\u2019s leaving for Iraq. <\/em>
\nHis unit is being mobilized for Iraq, <\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nHe has to go to Iraq.<\/em>
\nI\u2019ll get you a drink, you\u2019re going to Iraq.<\/em>
\nE-mail me when you get to Iraq.<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nHopefully things will get better when you get to Iraq.<\/em>
\nAre you scared about going to Iraq?<\/em>
\nDid you know you would have to go to Iraq?<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nI can\u2019t imagine going to Iraq.<\/em>
\nIs there a chance you might not go to Iraq?<\/em>
\nWhere will you be in Iraq?<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\nWhat will you be doing in Iraq?<\/em>
\nHow long will you be in Iraq?<\/em>
\nIraq?\u00a0 Really? Iraq?<\/em><\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

6.<\/p>\n

My Chemistry professor asks
\nwhy I\u2019m withdrawing from class.<\/p>\n

She says, e-mail your address<\/em>
\nI\u2019ll send you guys cookies.<\/em><\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

7.<\/p>\n

At Ohio State
\nwith Jake and Larry, we walk<\/p>\n

from house to house,
\nkeg to keg, drink beers<\/p>\n

from a book bag.\u00a0 When I wake
\non white carpet in a living room,
\nI\u2019m not sure what has happened,<\/p>\n

but I\u2019m still going to Iraq.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

8.<\/p>\n

Channels went home for Christmas;
\nhe never came back to Bragg.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s AWOL; LT says
\nthe Marshals will find him
\nwithin a week.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span>
\n9.<\/p>\n

Asleep in the barracks.
\nThree a.m., two feet
\nhit the floor.\u00a0 Someone runs<\/p>\n

(tomorrow we will know it was Spencer)
\nto the lighted latrine,
\nand three paces from my bunk,
\nspew lashes<\/p>\n

across the red floor as if dumped
\nfrom a bucket above\u2014but he doesn\u2019t stop,
\nvomit falling as he runs,<\/p>\n

and in the stall,
\nafter coughing up the rest,
\na slow breathing,
\ncold water in the sink; he sucks it<\/p>\n

from a cupped hand, again and again.<\/p>\n

_______<\/span><\/p>\n

10.<\/p>\n

At the high school football game,
\nDan and John shake my hand.\u00a0 They stand<\/p>\n

in thick, unzipped jackets.
\nWhen we lean left<\/p>\n

with the hundreds of heads<\/p>\n

watching the ball in the air
\nsoaring to our home end zone,<\/p>\n

I feel the tremors in my chest,
\nthe silent crowd inhaling to explode,<\/p>\n

the open mouths,
\nthe arms, the screams.<\/p>\n

Hugh Martin<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t wanna hear that fuckin\u2019 four-letter word. – Specialist Skeen in a bar in Leesville, Louisiana,\u00a0after getting his 35th tattoo. _______ 1. At Fort Polk, Louisiana, the Opposition Force shoots all three of us, but we enjoy this death, which gives us a chance to sit, smoke, rest our feet.\u00a0 Dying is part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-Rl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10343,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307\/revisions\/10343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}