The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner Poem by Patrick Dumas

This is one of my favorite poems by Randall Jarrell and one of my favorite poems. Analyze it line for line and read it many times over to understand each lines meaning..

From my mother's sleep I fell into the state
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

-Randall Jarrell