Facing it by Yusef Komunyakaa

The speaker as I see him is a man who once was in war and who no longer was in it but yet still suffered from the stresses and the unforgettable trauma of the Vietnam War. I was able to gather this info from the words he choose to use and how he put them together. I can get a sense of how he didn’t want to feel the pain and didn’t want to feel the sadness when visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but yet the feelings overcame his wishes. When he says “I said I wouldn’t: no tears. I’m stone. I’m flesh “ he’s talking to himself telling his self not to cry you’re not suppose to cry he’s giving himself a characteristic of a rock that refers to the “I’m stone “, but yet still remembers that he is still human with human feelings that refers to “I’m flesh”. He goes to the memorial hoping to hide his true feelings but his own self won’t let him hide. In the begging of the poem he states that his “black face fades, hiding inside the black granite.” He soon realizes that he can’t hide from himself or his conscience when he say ”My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey”, u can see this clearly. It’s ongoing struggle beyond his control. when he says”depending on the light to make a difference”, nobody controls light therefore he can’t control his memories and his feeling towards the war. He goes on to mention a name and just as quickly as he mentions a name that name is gone and in its place is a visual of what he seen during the war “I see the booby traps white flash”