Gregory Lopez

Dr. Bruce

Into Comp.

 

                       

                                                                        A Deception

 

 

 

The poem, “Ignis Fatuus” is about a girl who lost security in her life.  She had a fling with a man who turned out to be deceptive, and abusive.  He was not what she believed him to be.  Her decision was foolish on her part.  She brought someone into her life without really knowing him and fell in love with him.  He then intruded on every aspect of her life.  Ultimately he abused and corrupted her.  She was left feeling insecure, scared, paranoid, and unable to trust anyone. Living on emotional memories, she hid away from the rest of the world.

 “Before [she slid] the key into the lock & half-turned the knob [she knew] someone had snuck into [her] life.”  She allowed herself to fall in love before getting to know the intruder.  We infer that she engaged in a regrettable fling that dissipated as quickly as it was ignited.

Now all the world “spies on upturned drawers of underwear & unanswered letters on a tin box of luminous buttons & subway tokens on books, magazines, & clothes flung to the studio’s floor.”  In other words, the intruder cast out her things most precious for all to see.  Now in pain and terror of what has happened, “[she lives] on what a screech owl recalls.”

“Years ago, [she] followed someone here in love with breath kissing the nape of [her] neck, back when it was easy to be at least two places at once.”  She still smells “his sweat lingering in the air,” reminding her of the past, of the intruder she let in her life.  Once she was able to live two lives: a private life with work and friends, and a private life with the intruder. His abuse, however, has stripped her of that ability. Now she cannot keep the pain he caused from poisoning every aspect of her life. She can no longer be in two places at once. It was easy then to separate herself from the rest of the world and emotionally be in another.

 The intruder led her astray in a moment of passion, much as Miles Davis once dazzled people with his entrancing trumpet and vibrantly colored clothes. His music would captivate listeners, taking them to places they wanted to be or leading them back to unwanted memories.

            The silhouettes of people are illuminated by the neon light as the girl passes them. “[L]eaning ghost against nighttime’s backdrop of neon a foolish fire can start this way.” She once followed her passion as travelers would follow an ignis fatuus, a light that appears in the night over a marshy ground, misleading travelers in the swamp, causing them to lose their way. Much like the travelers, the girl was deceived by a “foolish fire,” in hopes that it would lead her to true love.

Now she tries to hide from the world and from the intruder; conceivably, she chooses to reside in a basement apartment, trying not to draw attention. Her only connection to the world is “[a] high window [in the] corner [spying]” into the outside world.  She realizes, however,  no matter how hard she tries to hide, the intruder will still be able to get into her life, at least psychologically.

 Memories from her lost love keep on coming back no matter how much she attempts to forget that terrible time.  They remain “a presence that [filling her] mind, a replenished body singing its way into doubletalk.”  The memory of her ignis fatuus, in other words, keeps her from finding her way back to the right path.

 “A swampy glow haloes the Spanish moss & there’s a swaying at the edge [of it] like a child’s memory of abuse growing flesh.”  Her feelings of terror inform her mind like an eerie glow highlights uncertain surroundings. “Something or someone, [a] feeling among a swish of [r]eeds,” watches creepily but certainly from afar.

“Ignis Fatuus,” is about a girl so passionate about love. That she allows herself to be lead astray and manipulated in a way that leaves her devastated.  The abuse and deception she endured in that relationship cause her to seclude herself from the rest of the world.  She abandoned her path in life to follow someone who appeared to be a wonderful guiding light, but in every aspect of her life he abused, intruded and left her feeling untrusting.  The girl has learned from her mistake, but the memories of what has happened haunt her, and she is unable to find her way in life again.  She remembers her life before this intrusion and wishes to go back to that time.

Yusef Komunyakaa is an author of great talent.  In this poem he shows us what can happen to a person who follows a “false light”.  If they, like the girl in the poem follow an ingis fatuus. They may soon find themselves being led astray; and trying to find their way to the right path.          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                               

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