Hugh Martin's Stick Soldiers

In his book Stick Soldiers, poet and war veteran Hugh Martin brings a solemn vividness to war in Iraq. One of the poems that particularly stood out to me was the titular “Stick Soldiers.” At Christmas, the soldiers are given cards drawn by American schoolchildren. The cards are cheerful, colored in crayon, and depict common Christmas iconography. Martin mentions one, however, that is decidedly less jubilant: a crude crayon drawing of an American soldier hurling a bomb at three “Irakis.” This image particularly affects me because this war occurred when I was around the ages of the schoolchildren Martin is writing about. I remember hearing about the war as a child, not understanding anything except for pointed hostility towards “Irakis.” Of course, I emulated this hostility that surrounded me with absolutely no grasp on what it all really meant. I obliviously spouted hateful comments about America’s supposed foes, and at one point in time I distinctly remember wondering why President Bush didn’t just nuke the country into oblivion. Looking back on that time today, I am horrified that a child could be taught to blindly hate like that, just from growing up in a wartime society. What terrifies me even more is that I know I was not the only child to pick up on this mindless animosity, and I also know that not all of those children eventually grew out of it. Martin shows that this wartime molding of children is not a purely American phenomenon, as he talks about finding chalk pictures drawn by Iraqi children of an American soldier with an RPG aimed at his head. This, Martin says, is what the Iraqi children wanted for Christmas.

Another poem that stood out to me was the “First Engagement” poem. In this poem, some American soldiers shoot down a strange looking vehicle only to find that its occupants were not actually threats. Martin showcases the fear that the soldiers felt in the hostile environment: “All you know: an hour ago, three mortars fell from the sky for you, this vehicle with sparks is for you.” Fear can make a man do strange and terrible things, particularly in war, and this poem beautifully illustrates one such occasion.