Toys in a Field

By Yusef Komunyakaa b. 1947 Yusef Komunyakaa

Using the gun mounts

for monkey bars,

children skin the cat,

pulling themselves through,

suspended in doorways

of abandoned helicopters

in graveyards. With arms

spread-eagled they imitate

vultures landing in fields.

Their play is silent

as distant rain,

the volume turned down

on the 6 o’clock news,

except for the boy

with American eyes

who keeps singing

rat-a-tat-tat, hugging

a broken machine gun.

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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