Task 1

We slept in our boots

About the writer

Steve Carlsen was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. He joined the United States Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1^st battalion 504^th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82^nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina. He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peace keeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2003. He currently attends Southwestern Michigan Collegewher his professor, Dr Michael Collins challenged him to write about his experiences.

In the poem, it is written in the point of view of a soldier, or rather all the soldiers, from the use of words like"we" and "I run as fast as I can". All the soldiers seem to be doing same thing at the same time. this is evident from"We fought from the valleys to the mountain peaks" and"We slept with our boots on so we were always prepared". this shows that they are very organised. He also introduced religion in the poem. he states that" Everyone loses their innocence when they carry guns Washed in the blood, and baptized by fire". this shows us that he knows that it is against his religion to hold a gun and kill somebody and he knows that he would be punished soon. The poem gives a rough overview on how a soldier is going through war by revealing to us his feelings and actions.

The situation of the poem is during a landing operation. this is evident from"Where we would land we had not a clue

Bullets are flying, the LZ is hot " LZ stands for landing. from the evidence, it can be seen that the situation is very serious and he has to be quick to avoid the enemies fire. He was in the middle of an intense fight as he had to"I kept pulling the trigger and reloading and pulling some more". this shows us the type of atmosphere the soldiers are feeling during a war, as they have to be quicker than the enemy to avoid being killed, hence telling us that the atmosphere was tense and they could not slack for a moment.

Lastly, the poem is written in simple and straight-forward language which makes it easier to read and more reader-friendly. The author also includes a few terms used in the army like" Lock N Load" and strong words like"shit" to allow the readers to feel with the soldier and allow them to feel what the soldiers are feeling. in conclusion, this poem talks about what a soldier experience in war.