Making the nighttime blush

Just for clarification it is M16A2 not M-16A2 but that is a different argument for later.

“M-16A2 Assault Rifle”

Martin’s poem, M-16A2 Assault Rifle, focused on every small detail of the rifle that he possibly could. Martin focuses on how he cleans the rifle and how he holds the rifle. He almost sounds like how a US Marine would if you asked them to talk about their rifle. But then again a Marine would just start reciting the “Rifleman’s Creed”. Martin talks about the rifle like as if it is a member of his family, which is understandable since he doesn’t have any family in Iraq as he is there. The poem more specifically focuses on the mundane of war life, which is something only O’Brien has talked about in his stories. At the end of the poem Martin takes a different turn where he says he rather hang up his rifle than to get the slightest bit of dirt on it. Which Martin makes an association to the shooting that he calls making the night blush. That is a wonderful association because bullets being fired at night does look like red burst in the darkness.

“The Stick Soldiers”

Martin did a fabulous job of really capturing the difference of opinions that Americans and Iraqis had for this war. When he was reading the American children’s letters he described the pictures that they drew along with some kids sending what they wanted for Christmas and to send best wishes to those soldiers. Even though the children of Iraq pictures on the concrete walls of what they wanted to soldiers to do or not really threats. The children of Iraq only wanted the American soldiers dead or just gone. Which is understandable because who really wants a bunch of soldiers to be around busting in their home door? Hugh Martin chooses the small details to bring out which is a good thing because the small details are what really show description in the stories.