In response to "Still Life" by Emily Mann

I really liked the interview format of Emily Mann's poem "Still Life".  The fragmented format of a poem allows the voice of the speaker (Mark) to feel more raw and real to me.  There are a lot of short sentences and phrases that helped me hear Mark as a Vietnam veteran (or at least my idea of one).  These fragments gave me the impression of an unedited monologue of this man, and his pain and regret come through all the better for me.  His attempts at justification are also very powerful, because he tries to justify his actions several times, and never succeeds.  The style of this piece connotes the trauma of the speaker.  I can't imagine talking about killing other people can be easy or eloquent, and this piece does a nice job of demonstrating that.  It was also terrifying to me how he admits that he knew that what he was doing was unethical while he was doing it, but he did it anyway, because he wanted to do a good job.  It is very striking to me how much of a crown mentality soldiers seem to rely on for affirmation that their actions are just.