The physics of war.

• Author: Courtney, Brandon
• Position: Poem

The Physics of War --for Benjamin Johnson and Vincent Parker 1. You pulled Johnson's greening bones from the sea. You entered the Gulf holding a single breath. You unfolded the nets of your lungs to gather a million shining fish. 2. The sea preserves a sailor's name in salt; for a moment, your body was more ocean than muscle, more water than blood. You've run your fingers through water, thicker than hair. 3. The rain hitting your window sounds like Arabic. The Farsi word for bone is deceit. The Farsi word for sperm is spark. 4. Maybe the carbon in your breath will one day become a perfect ring inside a tree. 5. Maybe drowning is your breath called suddenly back by the trees from which it came. 6. The same iron in your blood once destroyed a star. 7. Your blood is magnetic-- it can be stretched across the bridge of a violin, played with a dead horse's hair. 8. Roman soldiers were once paid in salt. 9. American soldiers once made gunpowder from wood ash and piss. 10. This wetness between your wife's thighs recently fell from a thunderhead. 11. If a sailor...