Around 58,022 people died in the Vietnam War in 1975, yet many people are still affected by seeing the Vietnam Memorial. In the poem, “Facing It,” by Yusef Komunakaa, the mood of the poem is melancholy because the imagery from the stone man, the woman’s blouse, and the lady combing hair establishes the mood. In example, the author described himself as a “black face, hiding inside the black granite.” This was showing that he was a black man who was also in the war. During that time, he wanted to be as strong as “stone,” but he wanted to cry for he was “flesh;” the readers could imagine him morphing into stone, then into a human. In addition, he watched in sorrow as the “names [shimmered] on a woman’s blouse, but when she [walked] away, the
