Making a Fist

“Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye begins with an epigraph from the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges: “We forget that we are all dead men conversing with dead men” (Epigraph). Though the epigraph appears morbid, the quotation addresses the inevitability of death, an action that ties together all of humanity. It is about connection through mortality and turns a morose subject into one of community.

The poem begins with the speaker, who the reader can assume to be Nye, driving “on the road north of Tampico” (Line 1); Tampico is a city in northeastern Mexico. The speaker describes how for “the first time” (Line 1) she feels “the life sliding out of [her]” (Line 2), meaning this is the first time she ever felt she was dying. She describes the feeling as a “drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear” (Line 3). The line is a metaphor, comparing the speaker’s life to a drum. The drumming symbolizes the beating of the speaker’s heart, or her breath, and how she is becoming disconnected with the rhythm of life within her.

The speaker explains she is “seven” (Line 4) and “lay[ing] in the car” (Line 4). These lines give the reader more context; now, the reader understands the setting of the poem and the age of speaker, which is important in the context of the poem. While “lay[ing] in the car” (Line 4) the speaker is “watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass” (Line 5), describing how the “palm tree” (Line 5) shadows are making her feel sick. The reader understands that the speaker is a young girl experiencing carsickness for the first time. The speaker describes the carsickness in the final line of the stanza: “My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin” (Line 6). The reader understands and may relate to the feeling of carsickness and how it can make the stomach feel as if it was being “split” (Line 6) open. The poem is describing an ordinary life event that may connect with readers who have had similar experiences. The reader can identify and even empathize with the speaker believing she is dying, as carsickness is a common occurrence amongst children.

The final two lines of the stanza offer consonance with the “s” sound. Consonance is a literary device where there is a repetition of consonant sounds in close succession. Here, the bolded letters offer an example: “my stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin” (Line 6). The repetition of the “s” sound mimics the feeling of sickness described by the speaker. This mimicking allows for association amongst readers as they mentally reenact the events of the poem as they read it.

The second stanza begins with the speaker “[begging]” (Line 8) her “mother” (Line 8): “How do you know if you are going to die?” (Line 7) Continuing from the first stanza, the reader can recognize how terrified the speaker is at feeling carsickness for the first time. The speaker believes she is dying and is looking to her mother for answers. The poem offers further context in Line 9: “We had been traveling for days.” The speaker does not disclose where she and her mother are traveling; thus, the reader is left suspended in a moment of flux. The speaker’s mother answers her question with “strange confidence” (Line 10), saying, “When you can no longer make a fist” (Line 11). The mother’s answer and “confidence” (Line 10) display to the reader how the mother understands what her child is experiencing; she is providing an anchor for her child to feel safe. Maybe the mother has felt the same way before and knows a sure answer will provide her child with relief. To “make a fist” (Line 11) is an easy, tangible way to remind the speaker that she is still alive. By moving her fingers into a closed shape, she can feel grounded, to feel her life working her bones and muscles. Her mother’s confidence also aids in assuaging the speaker’s fears, and the “fist” (Line 11) is passed down through a generation as a coping skill and connection between mother and daughter.

A second reading of the mother’s “confidence” (Line 10) is that she has firsthand knowledge of what happens when a person dies. Perhaps she can respond to her daughter with authority because she was present at the passing of a loved one. This reading offers an additional layer of connectivity.

Stanza three starts with a shift in time, the speaker describing how “years later” (Line 12) she “[smiles] to think of that journey, / the borders we must cross separately, / stamped with our unanswerable woes” (Lines 12-14). Though as a child the speaker felt so terrible that she thought she was dying, she recalls the memory. The “borders” (Line 13) the speaker describes relate to the individual experiences all people face, despite their experiences shared with others.

Everyone dies separately yet dying is a natural act all of humanity endures. These “borders” (Line 13) could also stand for growing from childhood to adulthood, or learning simple lessons, like car sickness won’t kill you. The “unanswerable woes” (Line 14) describe how many of the “borders” (Line 13) that people cross connect with the unknown. A child has no idea what adulthood will hold, nor does anyone know for sure what death will hold. Much of life’s unknowns are distressing or sorrowful, emotions that have and require no answer, which explains why the speaker calls them “woes” (Line 14).

The speaker concludes the poem with, “I who did not die, who am still living” (Line 15). She continues, “still lying in the backseat behind all my questions” (Line 16)—a metaphor connecting where the speaker is in life regarding her past. The speaker still feels as if she was “[lying] in the car” (Line 4), a setting where she is suspended between two places. Where and why the speaker feels suspended is left for the reader to interpret. Though she has grown up, the speaker is still “clenching and opening one small hand” (Line 17) to remind herself that she is alive. The poem closes with the speaker connecting her adult self with her child self; this displays how growing up does not always ease “unanswerable woes” (Line 14). As her young self needed to “make a fist” (Line 11) to help get through car sickness, the adult speaker still needs to “make a fist” (Line 11) to stay grounded amidst all her “unanswerable woes” (Line 14).