![]() Capitol Building, and the destabilizing feelings of re-integration. callousness towards migrants, the moral injury caused by the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. “Fragmentation” is perhaps the most difficult chapter. Such embarrassing moments are the unspoken anecdotes of combat, and convey the absurdity and vulnerability of such moments. A war wound turns out to be from a fall into a hole while walking with night vision devices. A busy nighttime patrol encounters gunshots and an opportunity for voyeurism on an Iraqi couple. The boring and mundane intermix with chaos and insanity. ![]() It is in these sections that the poems introduce Musar Afghanistan, an imaginary Afghan warlord and elder who torments the poet with doublespeak during war and peace. Sometimes the dead are soldiers, and other times the dead are children all are tragic and wasteful. range days and the shock of having the meaning of the word obliterated when bombs destroy lives and material alike. These chapters capture the boredom of 4 a.m. The second, third, and fourth chapters-”Pressure,” “Blast,” and “Debris”-toss away glamorous views of war. After reading “America Calls Him,” the reader may think back to the exhortations of Paul Baumer’s schoolmaster in All Quiet on the Western Front. The first section ends with a familiar notion: that young people take on the narratives of their citizens calling for war and vengeance. Part of this journey involves poems about his grandparents who never talked about their wars, his own shenanigan-filled childhood, and what seems to be his father’s disappointment with his son’s immaturity. The first section, “Heat,” seems to be an autobiographical account of the author’s journey from child to soldier. Instead, a retired soldier grapples with the war-games of his youth, the boredom and chaos of his service, and the struggle to find common ground with angry citizens bent on destruction. Five sections divide the book: “Heat,” “Pressure,” “Blast,” “Debris,” and “Fragmentation.” Peruse the section titles and the poems seem to tell a story of a soldier shaped, formed, and fractured-in the literal sense-by an improvised explosive device. This wordplay sets the tone for the rest of the collection, including the section titles. Does one read them as “heat and pressure” or as “heat plus pressure”? The title could be the first poem of the book. It also provides welcome space for reflection amongst the veteran community.Ĭonsider the title for a moment: Heat + Pressure. As this review argues, reintegration after war is a formative process fraught with difficult acknowledgements, depths of disillusionment, and realizing one’s own strength for creating something instead of destroying it. Heat + Pressure shows how today’s warriors can become poets and help veterans synthesize war and their reintegration into society. Heat + Pressure: Poems from War by Ben Weakley delivers on the initial interest brought about by its unique title that sits in bold letters over the melted green army figure on the cover. A design draws you in through color or shock a title intrigues you. Sometimes you go against the advice of the well-known saying and choose a book by its cover.
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