Transfer

by Josh Ekroy

After they've dispatched the wounded,
they transfer the sacks from the clattering chopper
and place them on the ground.
To the five already there,
half-naked soldiers add eight more.
They're wearing boxer shorts and slippers
as they go about their business in the heat.
A Ural truck drives up with a roar,
cadets lay out the bodies anyhow and
when there's no more room
pile a few in a second layer. In one continuous movement
orderlies heave a sack up, jump in with it as the truck's speed increases.
Heaps lurch with the squeaking Ural as they bang across ruts
while the guards point their feet to keep balance.
We watch refrigerator cars being shunted into sidings,
the chopper loading a batch of troops in crisp uniforms.
They run into the cargo bay in close file
snagged by the flaps of their greatcoats.
The last thing they see in the dark hold are eyes looking straight ahead,
snagged by the flaps of their greatcoats.
They run into the cargo bay in close file,
the chopper loading a batch of troops in crisp uniforms.
We watch refrigerator cars being shunted into sidings
while the guards point their feet to keep balance.
Heaps lurch with the squeaking Ural. As they bang across ruts
orderlies heave a sack up, jump in with it as the truck's speed increases,
pile a few in a second layer in one continuous movement.
When there's no more room
cadets lay out the bodies anyhow and
a Ural truck drives up with a roar.
As they go about their business in the heat,
they're wearing boxer shorts and slippers.
Half-naked soldiers add eight more
to the five already there
and place them on the ground.
They transfer the sacks from the clattering chopper
after they've dispatched the wounded.

Judge's Comments - Roger Elkin

A specific example of war-faring mankind occurs in this poem which deals with the transport of wounded combatants in a military conflict. While the actual geographical locality is un-named, the fact that a Ural truck is identified indicates that the transfer from truck to "chopper" involves Russian body-bags, soldiers identified as having equivalence to "sacks". [Could this be a reference to Russian involvement in Afghanistan? And does it matter, if this is so, that the poet doesn't further identify it as such?] Here there are specific details of the participants in this exchange - "half-naked soldiers and eight more" "wearing boxer shorts and slippers", and their routines are accurately and dispassionately recorded. The poet's stance - questioning and critical - is recorded in the cataloguing of detail, which at one level is marked by its objectivity, and at another by its accuracy of record. Where the ingenuity of the poem lies is in the fact that the Transfer of the title lies in more than the actual recorded events, but simultaneously within the poem's control of structure and form. This is a cancrizan, or mirror-poem, in which, via subtle use of altered sentence structure and punctuation, the lines of the first half of the poem are replicated in reverse: this, a "true" poetic Transfer, is a difficult form to bring off successfully without the appearance of artificiality or contrivance. What helps here is the poet's stance as observer rather than critic.