"Facing It" By Yusef Komunyakaa

     In the Poem, " Facing It," by Yusef Komunyakaa, we are introduced to a Vietnam War Veteran who is visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. From reading the poem, we get a feel that he's visited the memorial many times before and that he himself was apart of the Vietnam War. The poem is so raw and in your face, describing this veterans feelings about the war and his feelings about having been apart of it. He seems to have a deep internal struggle with his memories of the war but also has conflict with his present day reality.  Komunyakka starts the poem with " My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite." I believe that Komunyakka is envisioning his memory of himself in the war, his face, "fading," or gradually going away and hiding in the wall. He follows that line with:
" I said I wouldn't,
Dammit: No tears.
I'm Stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me,
like a bird of prey,"
      I feel like the veteran also has a struggle in dealing with his own pride. In our society,boys have been taught that to be men, they are to be strong, courageous,tough, dominating, no pain, no emotions with the exception of anger and definitely no fear. Our society, collectively socializes men to be these things and in doing so, this stanza relates to that a lot.The veteran didn't want to allow himself to cry or to let out his emotions. We actually see him get mad at himself for crying, and a comparison to himself being "stone." Stone is a form of rock, something that is not living, it is dead and is solid. In the same comparison of himself to stone, he also says he is flesh, which means he realizes that he is a living, breathing person with real, raw emotions and feelings. Maybe he feels like a part of him died in the war and a part of him is living in present day society. He keeps getting taken back to the war with each name he reads on the wall. He is almost in disbelief that he is still living in a physical sense after the war, that his name isn't on the wall. That he himself isn't another casualty. In a sense though I feel like maybe, physically he may have survived the war but psychologically, spiritually, he died. 
      This poem relates so much to present day soldiers in Iraq and this whole war going on. Present day soldiers coming back from war, have similar issues trying to readjust themselves back to normal day to day life. Many soldiers come back with a distorted sense of reality, torturous flashbacks of killing, or being attacked. Many soldiers come back with post- traumatic stress disorder, where the simple thought or a memory could trigger a complete panick attack or irrational behavior.
    Instead of this veteran being able to put the war behind him, it seems as if this memorial serves as a constant reminder or a tragic marker of the war he served in.