Brian Turner's Poem Ashbah Poem

In Brian Turner’s poem “Ashbah,” he focuses on the motif of ghosts, and uses it to describe the American soldiers that were victims of the war in Iraq. Turner describes both points of view of the war, the American soldiers and the Iraqi soldiers. The Americans and the Iraqi soldiers are not explained using the same voice. In fact the Americans are described as lower on the totem pole as and further away from home than the Iraqi’s. Therefore, Turner allows this poem to be read in different ways, by describing the opposing sides of the war occurring in Iraq. Turner starts this poem with an intriguing line, “The ghosts of American soldiers” (1). The word “ghosts” is referring to the American soldiers in Iraq. In “Ashbah,” the poem focuses on …show more content…
The Iraqi soldiers that are dead, are “watching in silence from rooftops” (9). They are supervising the Americans and watching them roam around their territory, but do not say a single peep to them. When the poet, Brian Turner, describes the Iraqi dead, he places them in a strikingly different setting than he placed the American soldiers. The Iraqis are close to “date palms in the shore in silhouette, / leaning toward Mecca when the dawn wind blows” (10/11). Date palms are trees that produce dates, the fruit, and they are blooming on the shores in Iraq. These trees are leaning towards Mecca because Mecca is the holiest place in the Muslim religion. Muslims either travel to Mecca or face the direction in which Mecca is and pray. These descriptions allow the audience to realize that the Iraqi soldiers are home, where they belong. The date palm trees are leaning toward Mecca because there is a “dawn wind” that is blowing them in that direction. The Iraqi soldiers view the dawn wind as refreshing and cool because they are used to the hot temperatures that occur in Iraq. Undoubtedly, the Iraqi soldiers are fighting this war at their homeland, driven by the things that are most important to them, their religion, and their