Yellowjackets

By Yusef Komunyakaa b. 1947 Yusef Komunyakaa

When the plowblade struck

An old stump hiding under

The soil like a beggar’s

Rotten tooth, they swarmed up

& Mister Jackson left the plow

Wedged like a whaler’s harpoon.

The horse was midnight

Against dusk, tethered to somebody’s

Pocketwatch. He shivered, but not

The way women shook their heads

Before mirrors at the five

& dime—a deeper connection

To the low field’s evening star.

He stood there, in tracechains,

Lathered in froth, just

Stopped by a great, goofy

Calmness. He whinnied

Once, & then the whole

Beautiful, blue-black sky

Fell on his back.

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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