"We Never Know" Blog

After reading the poem, "We Never Know" by Yusef Komunyakaa, I cursed myself for never reading it before. The imagery is powerful and it seems this poem can behold many meanings to it. The character in this poem seems to be dreaming perhaps of a wonderful illusion. The tall blade of grass may resemble a forgotten memory while the character is envisioning it happening. The narrator tries to go to the character of focus and grab his attention yet is stopped by, "a blue halo of flies" which may represent the character's concentration from being disturbed? The poem is a bit confusing at first I do admit. Yet the crumbled photograph mentioned in the poem is very interesting. Again I believe the photograph might mean a memory that the character is holding on to. Since he was holding it in his fingers while dancing, you can assume that he refuses to let go of the past, something is stopping him from moving on. Yet towards the end you realize the character has been killed during the war, his last vision was probably the photograph and what picture was embedded within it. The grass claimed his attention and nature took him. The narrator fell in love with the illusion on what the dead man was experiencing as if he was taken to a different world while the sounds of mortars and guns faded from him.