“The Hurt Locker” appears in Brian Turner’s 2005 debut collection Here, Bullet, published by Alice James Books. Here, Bullet received major media attention, and Turner frequently appeared for interviews in The New Yorker, New York Times, Morning Edition and many other major media outlets. “The Hurt Locker” takes its title and themes from the slang term for a place of deep pain and discomfort. To be in the hurt locker, an individual has experienced something profoundly hurtful, troubling, or painful. In the poem, the speaker shares experiences from Iraq that have impacted them mentally and emotionally.

Poet Biography

Born and raised in California, Turner eventually attended Fresno State in order to earn his bachelor’s and his master’s degree. He eventually earned his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Oregon. Prior to joining the US Army, Turner taught English in South Korea and traveled to Russia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. In 1999 and 2000, Turner served with the 10th Mountain Division and was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Turner served as an infantry team leader with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division in the Iraq War beginning in 2003. He is the Director of the low-residency MFA program at Lake Tahoe’s Sierra Nevada College. In September 2010, Turner married poet Ilyse Kusnetz. The two remained married until her death in 2016.

An American poet, essayist, and professor, Brian Turner has received many awards and honors for his poems about the Iraq War. These honors include the Lannan Literary Fellowship and NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry. His poems have been published in The Cortland Review, Poetry Daily, Atlanta Review, Georgia Review, RATTLE, and many other academic and literary journals.

Poem Text

Turner, Brian. “The Hurt Locker.” 2022. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The speaker opens the poem with a blunt statement: “Nothing but hurt left here” (Line 1). Images associated with war, such as “bullets and pain” (Line 2), “the bled-out slumping” (Line 3), and “all the fucks and goddamns / and Jesus Christs of the wounded” (Lines 4-5) follow the statement. The speaker then repeats that there is nothing “left here but the hurt” (Line 6) to close the stanza.

In the second stanza, the speaker wills readers to understand what combat veterans experience during war, using blunt commands such as “Believe it when you see it” (Line 7) and “Believe it when a twelve-year-old / rolls a grenade into the room” (Lines 8-9). Recalled images also include snipers whose shot “punches a hole / deep into someone’s skull” (Lines 10-11). The speaker again wills their audience to attempt to understand war’s brutality by repeating the phrase “Believe it” (Line 12). Next, “four men” (Line 12) who “step from a taxicab in Mosul” (Line 13) provide specificity by providing an actual location, that of Mosul. From this point, commands return, giving the poem’s conclusion a forceful tone. Commands include “Open the hurt locker” (Line 15, Line 17), and the speaker blends violent images of “knives / and teeth” (Lines 16-17). The poem concludes with the unexplained image of “rough men who come hunting for souls” (Line 18).