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19 pages 38 minutes read

Layli Long Soldier

WHEREAS

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2017

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Themes

Language as Political Tool

Rhetoric is the art of persuasive communication and has a definitive purpose within politics. Poetry, on the other hand, is often less about convincing anyone of anything than it is about creating more questions. With the poem “WHEREAS,” Layli Long Soldier uses the language of a government document to pull at the thread and intentions of that document. In the process, she stays faithful to her art by keeping the poem open. Written in first-person, the poem reveals a vulnerability as well as a strength—an authenticity— that the official document lacks.

Formally, the poem takes on the appearance of an official document. Visually, its stanzas—with the introductory word “Whereas” and concluding semicolon punctuation at the end of each stanza— appear to be articles of a legal nature. The word “whereas” prepares the reader for repetitive and perhaps dry information. Instead, the poem relates a scene in the life of the speaker. It makes statements that each end in a semicolon, cueing the reader for what would be the next, consecutive statement, if the poet didn’t, instead, surprise the reader with a new development and emotional shift with every stanza break.

The word “politics” is associated with debate, conflict, and power. While those characteristics seem dynamic, the language of governance is often quite passive. Official language is frequently constructed to dodge or misdirect responsibility for an action or actions: “Mistakes were made,” rather than “I’m to blame.” That the poet chose a first-person voice for her speaker indicates a willingness to take responsibility, as well as a right to that singular voice.

The language of U.S. treaties signed by Native American tribes remains manipulatable, as demonstrated by the challenge to the Dakota Access Pipeline by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe via the Fort Laramie Treaty, a supposedly binding document over 150 years old. Long Soldier’s poem challenges the reader to put enough pressure on the language to truly mean something.

The American Casual

When the speaker in “WHEREAS” refers to “the American casual” (Line 6), she is in pain and “glued to a bench” (Line 6). There is nothing of comfort in this brand of casual. In addition, the use of “American” somehow positions the speaker outside of what she means, here, by “American.” The speaker is stuck, in other words, in alien and unfriendly territory, despite the fact that she is part of the “circle” (Line 4) ringed with the “scholarly (Line 4).

The event includes beer, informal attire, “East Coast grass” (Line 5), a starry sky and winking “fireflies” (Line 5)—all indications of an outdoor party, or friendly gathering. This ring of learned people, however, are dangerous in their nonchalance. The discussion they’d been having becomes “an oncoming semi” (Line 9) from which the speaker must leap in order to save herself. “[S]omeone’s discomfort leaks out” (Line 8) like toxic sludge. It is that moment in a horror movie when the protagonist understands that she isn’t invited to dinner, she is dinner.

The picnic or barbecue gives a false impression of ease. All the usual social potholes and dangers exist for a person identified as “other”—they’re just hidden under the camp chairs or sleeping behind the beer cooler. There is no occasion more casual and overtly violent than, for example, a Fourth of July party, at which when the sun goes down, the munitions come out.

The “American casual” (Line 6), here, is pithy code for thinly veiled aggression. It defines the malice behind statements such as, “Can’t you take a joke?” and “I’m only playing with you.” The phrase indicates, as well, a sloppiness around language and around, perhaps, what is considered “scholarly” (Line 4). A studiously casual manner can ask forgiveness of even institutionalized ignorance for the sake of getting along.

The Unbearable Lightness of Punctuation

Layli Long Soldier takes great care with the punctuation in “WHEREAS.” While the semicolons mimic the punctuation used in the primary source document (and many official government documents), they do more than separate clauses. The semicolons function to create both a pause and a sense of continuity between stanzas that take considerable leaps. There’s more to be said, the semicolon tells the reader; we’re not done here.

The poem incorporates other significant yet subtle forms of punctuation and formatting, including quotation marks and italics. The italicized “at least” (Line 3) in the phrase, “’Well at least there was an Apology / that’s all I can say’” (Lines 3-4) is an attempt to validate what the speaker considers to be, the reader will soon understand, an utterly invalid attempt at an apology. The reader gets the impression that the statement is not, in fact, all that the man can say, but that the inclusion of “at least” is a gesture toward gaining consensus and shutting down resistance. At least asks only that—the very least commitment, the very least accountability.

The quotation marks work on a number of levels. In stanza five, the quotation marks enclose verbatim language from the apology resolution, which delivers more specific information about the subject of the “discussion” (Line 2). What is accurately quoted, however, is not necessarily true; it is only correctly reported. The enclosure of “conflict” (Line 17) brings the accuracy of the word into question. Putting “genocide” (Line 16) in quotation marks has the opposite effect—the extra punctuation highlights the horror contained in the word.

Additional interesting punctuation include the use of the hyphen. Hyphenated words in phrases such as “string-bean blue-eyed man” (Line 1) and “bone-clean self-honesty” (Line 19) infuse the form with gorgeous, inventive imagery and poetic life. Punctuation, like language in general, can dull the message or make it sing.

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