CHEST Guidelines-Sharp-Points

Sharp-Points_chest (1)
Pdf Summary
"Sharp Points" is a poignant poem by Judith Bader Jones, reflecting on a childhood memory filled with conflict and loss. The poem describes a moment during World War II when the narrator's father, who had a rheumatic heart condition that kept him from the front lines, encountered German prisoners of war (POWs) in Missouri. The father, standing safely outside the confines of a POW camp, shares a moment of unexpected humanity with the enemy soldiers. He offers a cigarette from a package of Lucky Strikes through the barbed wire to the prisoners, a small gesture bridging the divide created by war.<br /><br />The narrative highlights the contrast between the domestic life of the narrator's father, who lived and worked on a farm with deep roots—established by his German forebears—and the harsh reality of the prisoners, who, though removed from direct conflict, were homesick and contending with the absence of freedom. The poem further delves into the theme of conflict by conveying the personal health battle faced by the father later in life. The Lucky Strike cigarettes, once a symbol of momentary peace, become the very source of his ill health, likened to "barb wires" imprisoning his lungs with cancer.<br /><br />Jones's evocative imagery and the underlying irony capture both the futility and the shared humanity found amid wartime. The poem underscores the enduring impact of war, both globally and personally, while drawing parallels between physical and metaphorical forms of confinement and conflict, culminating in the father's eventual demise caused by smoking—a haunting reminder of the sharp points of irony life often presents. The work was published in the journal CHEST in 2017 and is part of the Pectoriloquy section, which invites medically themed poetry.
Keywords
Judith Bader Jones
Sharp Points
World War II
German POWs
humanity
Lucky Strike cigarettes
irony
confinement
conflict
CHEST journal