Reflections

By Yusef Komunyakaa b. 1947 Yusef Komunyakaa

In the day’s mirror

you see a tall black man.

Fingers of gold cattail

tremble, then you witness

the rope dangling from

a limb of white oak.

It’s come to this.

You yell his direction,

the wind taking

your voice away.

You holler his mama’s name

& he glances up at the red sky.

You can almost

touch what he’s thinking,

reaching for his hand

across the river.

The noose pendulous

over his head,

you can feel him

grow inside you,

straining to hoist himself,

climbing a ladder

of air, your feet

in his shoes.

Source: Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2001)

Biography

In his poetry, Yusef Komunyakaa weaves together the elements of his own life in short lines of vernacular to create complex images of life in his native Louisiana and the jungles of Vietnam. From his humble beginnings as the son of a carpenter, Komunyakaa has traveled far to become a scholar, professor, and prize-winning poet. In 1994, he claimed the Pulitzer Prize and the $50,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his Neon . . .

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