Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
... Randall Jarrell’s poem “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” was about a short, young man who was drafted (to replace a wounded or dead soldier) in to the military to serve as gunner in a bomber plane, who ultimately did not return home because he too lost his life on his first time out on a mission. ... The line “And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze” can mean he assumes his position inside the turret which was small and that is why he had to “hunch” and he may have also hunched like a fetus because he was afraid. ... “Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life” its referring to the gunner (the young man), now is making a realization that he is “really” in the military fighting a war, much different from life as he had once known it to be prior to being drafting while flying high above the ground.