Great Regulars: "I went to the hardware store one day

to buy some nails," he [Brian Turner] explains, soft voice almost lost to the hiss of the transatlantic telephone line. "And I noticed that they looked almost exactly like the firing pin of my weapon. I found myself standing there in the store, seeing the war in my life." The collection is haunted by Turner's battle ghosts: "sheets of plywood drop with the airy breath/of mortars"; "cash registers open and slide shut/with the sound of machine guns being charged"; at night, when the lights are out, "fan blades rotate above, slow as helicopters/winding down their oily gears".

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Brian Turner: words of war

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