Full Metal Jacket

by Erica Ann Welch
(Memphis, Tennessee )

Jan Rose Kasmir confronts the American National Guard outside the Pentagon during the 1967 anti-Vietnam march

"This is my gun.
There are many others like it.
But this one is mine."

Sargent says my gun is my wife.
She makes love to me by blowing away what tries to tear us apart.

I no longer dream of making love to her.
Her weak body on top of mine, sinking further into trenches.
Pinning me to sweat-stained sheets with the problems.
Problems she straps to her chest,
like a full metal jacket.

I have found that if I hold the barrel to my cheek,
It's just like sleeping on my father's rounded shoulders.