Sign Inventory Week 2

"Facing It"
Yusef Komunyakaa

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against the morning. I turn
this way--the stone lets me go.
I turn that way--I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own letters like smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the boob trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman's trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.


Sign Inventory

* Three instances of high specificity occur in this otherwise rather "non-specific" poem. Ex. "Vietnam Veterans Memorial, " "58,022" and "Andrew Johnson."

* The action of the poem seems to occur entirely in a reflection.

*The poem utilizes short, enjambed lines occuring within a single block of text. Almost "list-like."

*The poem repeats certain colors throughout the poem. "Black" occurs three times, "white"- twice, and "red" once.

*The poem seems constructed around a notion of 'erasure'- for instance- the opening line of the poem is "my black face fades." The poem ends: "a woman's trying to erase names."

* The naming of Andrew Johnson seems a strange, important choice here. Although a common name, it's a loaded one to boot.  Trail of Tears????

*At about halfway through the poem, the rather "grounded" language takes off into more metaphorical and symbolic language. This is marked with the image of "Brushstrokes" and a "red bird's wings cutting accross my stare."