19 pages • 38 minutes read

Postcolonial Love Poem

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2020

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

War

Diaz uses the image of war to comment upon the extreme trauma she experiences in her daily life. She references historical wars as “ended” (Line 3) but emphasizes the ongoing culture war, saying, “depending on which war you mean” (Lines 4). By connecting these wars together, she emphasizes the ongoing violence of assimilation and cultural erasure.

Yet in the face of these wars, the speaker tries to “wage love” (Line 8) instead. But the battlefield extends to her relationship. Each erotic encounter is “another campaign” (Line 9). Her lover’s white skin is a “cannon flash” (Line 10) that triggers the speaker’s generational trauma. Despite no suggestion of physical violence between the couple, their bodies are “like wounds— / the war never ended and somehow begins again” (Lines 40-41). The power imbalance between an Indigenous woman and a white woman re-enacts the historical colonial warfare, wounding their bodies.

Rocks

Diaz uses rocks to mark the resiliency of her people and herself. The lesson that “bloodstones can cure a snakebite” (Line 1) reflects how her people have cared for themselves in the face of colonialism. Her hopes and dreams for a better life “sleep like geodes beneath hot feldspar sand” (Line 22). This image emphasizes both her own personal resiliency and her people’s. Despite her struggles, her internal life is still beautiful and dazzling like the inside of a geode. Her people have faced a battle of attrition and, though they have been worn down, these rocks have turned to sand.

While the inherent violence of a relationship between a settler and a colonized person “leave[s] marks / the size of stones” (Lines 15-16), these stones are “polished” gemstones (Line 16). The “green [and] mottled red” (Line 18) of the bruises reveals “the jaspers of our desires” (Lines 19). Her lover’s touch has value, as her hands leave “diamonds” (Line 27) behind and her “quartz-light” (Line 31) hips have healing qualities. Rocks reflect the speaker’s love and healing in the face of on-going violence.

Flowers and Seeds

Despite the bleakness of Indigenous people’s history, Diaz makes sure to not only emphasize the ongoing existence of her people, but also their ability to thrive. To show these possibilities, she describes them as the “seeds sleep” (Line 22). They will continue to grow and bloom, though now they are dormant. When these hopes and dreams are cared for, these hardy seeds will bloom as “wild heliotrope, scorpion weed, / [and] blue phacelia” (Lines 35-36). Diaz has imagined a world free of colonization so that her people can thrive.