American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin ["I lock you in..."]

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The persistence of racial injustice

As its common title states, the sonnet is addressed to the speaker’s past and future assassin. The term “past and future assassin” is puzzling and interesting, since it evokes the idea that the speaker-self will be killed over and over again. The cycle of killing-rebirth-killing becomes not just plausible but certain, when it becomes clear that the “you” also stands for the Black self and the myth of an egalitarian America. Racial injustice did not end with the ending of the Jim Crow laws; instead, it morphed into many different forms and exists in these forms as everyday reality. The poet uses the ubiquitous all-American image of the “gym” to cleverly trace a line between contemporary reality and the historic oppression of the Jim Crow laws. The sort of racial injustice which is the theme of Hayes’s sonnet cycle is not merely prejudice and bias but outright violence against Black Americans. The irony is that such violence stares people in the face in the form of police brutality, murders by white supremacists, and other monstrous acts, yet the myth of race-blind America persists. Many white people still do not question their own role in perpetuating racial injustice. Though “I Lock You …” does not reference specific instances of racial violence, as do other sonnets in the cycle, the poem makes several allusions to the crisis in America. The sonnet begins on a note of panic and alarm, as if in the middle of an emergency. The reader or the “you” must be safely locked in a panic room or a prison cell to escape the chaos outside. However, the sense of safety is illusory as the outside is a burning house. The burning house is a metaphor for contemporary America, with its history of racial injustice, while the mention of “prison” immediately evokes the reality that Black men are much more likely to be incarcerated and falsely charged with crimes than any other demographic in America. Similarly, the idea that the crow-self is watched from the bleachers symbolizes that the Black self is never free from the scepter of the racism inbuilt in social systems and institutions. The Black self is always being watched, or itself has to be watchful. Unlike the white self, the Black self can never forget about racial difference. This is another way in which racial injustice exists in contemporary America.

Violence against the Black body

The specific kind of racial injustice the sonnet series explores is violence against Black Americans. In “I Lock You …” the poet zooms into society and culture’s unhealthy obsession with violence against the Black body. Whether it be movies or books, popular culture has often depicted the violence against Black people in an exploitative manner or focused overtly on their physical suffering. The sonnet alludes to this representation through the violent image of the meat grinder. The symbol of the meat grinder draws attention both to the actual violence targeting Black people, as well as the exploitative representations of this violence. While the poet acknowledges the continuation of violence against Black Americans, he simultaneously attempts to portray that violence in a responsible way. He satirizes the notion that the violence is purifying. In Lines 7-9, he writes, “As the crow/You undergo a beautiful catharsis trapped one night/ In the shadows of the gym.” One of the interpretations of these lines is that America justifies the violence against the Black body by coupling it with the false narrative of catharsis and survival. Though the bird the poet uses is the crow, the idea he evokes is that of a phoenix, which rises from its ashes. The bird is still “trapped,” the catharsis still happens “one night” and “in the shadows of the gym,” again evoking disturbing images of a nighttime lynching, as were common in the American South during the Jim Crow era. The sonnet the poet writes is a means to represent this violence as what it was – a terrible act, neither a catharsis, nor a performance.

Being a Black artist in America

With the American Sonnet itself being the subject of the poem, the poet explores his role as a Black poet in America. Since the poem was written in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, and the increasing visibility of white supremacists, it tackles era-appropriate themes such as how does any artist create art in a world where liberal, democratic values seem to be compromised. The question is doubly tricky for the Black poet, who must express themselves through their writing but cannot elide larger political and social realities. Even if the Black writer states the truth, they may not be able to alter the status quo. Hayes’s answer to these troubling questions is using the sonnet – a highly structured form – to state a truth that is uncontainable. The very structure of his poem and its multiple contradictions and mysteries draw attention to the messy nature of reality. The reality is that racial injustice continues, and it is a part of the Black poet’s personal world. Hayes deliberately collapses the bounds between personal and political, with the prison (a public space) of his sonnet is located in “a house set aflame” (Line 2; the house a personal space). The image of a house encompassing a prison shows that the personal contains the political. The role of the Black poet is to express their truth, which contains the shadows of history and politics. Moreover, continuing to write even when writing seems insufficient is an important act of rebellion. By creating art and poetry, the Black American artist is writing American literary tradition in their own image. Even when the tools are limiting, like the western sonnet form, the artist can use them to create their unique vision. Using and transforming the sonnet is the greatest subversive act the poet can perform.