The United States Welcomes You

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Theft

Theft, like many other concepts in the poem, has many levels of meaning; this multiplicity of meanings is called being polysemic. The surface-level meaning of theft is a crime of illegally procuring something which does not belong to you and which will be investigated by law enforcement. The presumed intent to steal, the “wish to steal” (Line 2), is also treated as a crime by law enforcement. In other words, the supposed intent to steal is a common excuse for detaining and interrogating Black men and other dark-skinned minorities.

In addition to these two levels of meaning, theft also has a history as being used symbolically in love poetry, specifically sonnets. Since “The United States Welcomes You” resembles a sonnet in structure, Smith ironically uses this level of meaning. Instead of stealing a heart, which may be found “leaping in your chest” (Line 6), the second person “you” of the poem is being accused of stealing property. While stealing one’s heart is generally a good thing in love poetry, stealing property is a crime that can be used to justify unethical interrogations by law enforcement. This echoes the irony in the “welcome” of the title.

Light and Dark

A motif of light and dark runs throughout the poem in questions such as, “Why do your dark bodies / Drink up all the light?” (Lines 3-4). Later in the poem, a rhyming word to light, “night” (Line 11), is a space invaded by the suspect. Combining these two concepts, the interrogator is arguing that bodies with dark skin assume both light and night. This illustrates a fear of white supremacists—that there will be no spaces left for only white people. White supremacists fear that whiteness will disappear with interracial marriages that produce children of more than racial identity.

This motif is developed by the comparison of the muteness of “dark bodies” (Line 3) with the silence of “ghosts” (Line 12). Ghosts are the opposite of embodied, and are no longer human. White supremacists also view people who are not white as less than human, like ghosts. These same bigoted individuals also consider many people of color to be part of the past--especially people of Indigenous American tribes.