B-17 Bomber Flying Fortress – The Queen Of The Skies The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner is a poem by Randall Jarrell, which were published in 1945. Is about the death of the ball turret gunner in a B-17 oder B-24 bomber in World War II.

From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.