has shot and killed:He danced with tall grassfor a moment, like he was swaying with a woman. Our gun barrels glowed white-hot.Dancing with the grass and swaying with a woman are two lucid images that beautifully display the horror of death. The use of this simile slows down the image and allows the reader to fully experience this death. As the soldier approaches he,"fell in love". All comes clear and he,".. turned him over,so he wouldn't bekissing the ground." The process is reversed,"The portrait of tenderness in reverse, for the whole is remembered, like that past backwards solo Jimi Hendrix devises for "Are You Experienced?"-drives home the irreversibility of violence and understanding."6 Komunyakaa seeks to show by going backwards(loving and caring for a life extinguished) that the .violence inherent in war is a constant. It can't be changed. Yet another technique used to vividly express the Vietnam experience.The Vietnam experience as witnessed by an African-American becomes the next venue for examination. "Tu Do Street" visualizes the tension between African-American and White soldiersl"Music divides theevening.I close my eyes& can seemen drawing lines in the dust." Even with closed eyes, the separation is apparent.To further drive a wedge between the soldiers, Komunyakaa compares this experience to the racism in America,"'America pushes throughthe membraneof mist & smoke, & I'm a small boyagain in Bogalusa. White Only". The African-American soldier doesn't feel welcome.There is a momentary toghetherness, but the reader is swiftly returned to the separation,"only machine gun fire brings ustogether. Down the streetblack GIs hold to their turf also". Once again the reader is drawn to the work, the experience,"This work, which dates from the mid-eighties, has an immediacy that goes well beyond typical poetry of remembrance while preserving all of its powers of reflection."7 The racial war is an internal war being fought i...
