Poet Analysis and Biography

Our poet was Ai. She describes herself as Japanese, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Black, Irish, Southern Cheyenne, and Comanche. She was born in Albany, Texas in 1947. She grew up in Tuscon, Arizona. She was raised in Las Vegas and San Francisco. She majored in Japanese at the University of Arizona. She immersed herself in Buddhism. Her name means “Love” in Japanese. She has won several awards including National Book Award for Poetry, for her book, Vice. Another award that she has won is the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her book, Sin. Her book, Killing Floor, won the award Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets.

Our Poem:

Killing Floor

BY AI

RUSSIA, 1927

On the day the sienna-skinned man

held my shoulders between his spade-shaped hands,

easing me down into the azure water of Jordan,

I woke ninety-three million miles from myself,

Lev Davidovich Bronstein,

shoulder-deep in the Volga,

while the cheap dye of my black silk shirt darkened the water.

My head wet, water caught in my lashes.

Am I blind?

I rub my eyes, then wade back to shore,

undress and lie down,

until Stalin comes from his place beneath the birch tree.

He folds my clothes

and I button myself in my marmot coat,

and together we start the long walk back to Moscow.

He doesn’t ask, what did you see in the river?,

but I hear the hosts of a man drowning in water and holiness,

the castrati voices I can’t recognize,

skating on knives, from trees, from air

on the thin ice of my last night in Russia.

Leon Trotsky. Bread.

I want to scream, but silence holds my tongue

with small spade-shaped hands

and only this comes, so quietly

Stalin has to press his ear to my mouth:

I have only myself. Put me on the train.

I won’t look back.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein is mentioned in this poem and another in this collection of her poems. Lev Davidovich Bronstein is the birth name for Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was the founder and Commander of the Red Army. Clearly this is a man of great importance in Russian history. This poem is based on Russian history.

“Shoulder deep in the Volga” The Volga is a river that goes through Russia, with Moscow in its drainage basin. It is the largest river in Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. This is a very important river in Russian culture. Both Trotsky and The Volga are very important to Russia and Russian history.

In the last line of the first stanza, “while the cheap dye of my black silk shirt darkened the water”, she could be saying that since she is part black, growing up in a time where blacks are discriminated against, she is trying to was away the “black in her” and the memories of being mistreated by her oppressors.

To start off the second stanza, the subject is clearly still in the water. With the water running down and covering her face. Her indicating blindness could mean she doesn't want to see Stalin's oppression or possibly her or the world being blind to what was happening in Russia at the time. The birch tree has meaning in two of the ethnicities that make up her background; Native American and Irish. It is significant to the Native part of her, because the Natives used the birch trees to make canoes and other boats, that has a tie to the fact that she was in a river. The Irish in her believes that the birch represents everything that the new Russia needed and Stalin wanted to obtain; growth, renewal, stability,

initiation, and adaptability.

When it states that Stalin folds her clothes, this could be viewed as a sign that he respects her.

She has a marmot coat, meaning she has a fair amount of money, as making a full coat out of such a s all animal, and either importing it from Russia, or being able to buy it from somewhere else and travel to Russia, indicates wealth. Rivers are seen as a very pure, and even holy symbol, and when she states she hears a man drowning in water and holiness, this could be a reference that, not only was Trotsky killed by an NKVD agent. NKVD was a secret police organization that executed rule of power during the time of Stalin and Trotsky, meaning Stalin either had a hand in killing Trotsky, or knew of his death, just as he knows what Ai would see in the river in the poem, and does not need to ask. The second meaning (in holiness), may be a reference to Trotsky's atheism, indicating that his anti-religious standpoint had a direct correlation with his downfall. This may be the “heaviest” line in the poem for symbols and revelations.

When Ai references the castrati voices, she could be comparing them to the throes of the dying. When somebody is screaming, especially when in extreme pain or in the process of being killed. Ai could be alluding to the assassination of Trotsky, because he was the man in the river. She can't recognize the voice, because she never actually heard Trotsky speak in person.

“Leon Trotsky. Bread.” Eucharist. In times of strong Christianity (1500's, etc) priests, cardinals, and other high-ranking religious figures believed they could turn wine and bread into the blood and flesh of Christ. This is known as The Eucharist. This could be seen as a strong and largely ironic allusion to the Christian religion, due to the fact that it is placed in the same line as Trotsky's name, and therefore associated with him, even though he is Atheist.

“The Spade-Shaped Hand is the fourth type and is characterized by a square base which is narrower than the top of the palm.  The fingers are relatively broad and square and may appear knotty.  A person with this type of hands usually has good manual dexterity and can do a lot of hand work all by himself.  Occupations such as mechanic and engineers are suitable for individuals with Spade-Shaped Hand because of their ability to do manual jobs effectively.”

This is a quote directly from http://readingpalm.org/type-of-hands.html. This indicates that the hands that hold her shoulders in the beginning of the poem, and her tongue at the end, belong to a person with manual dexterity and works hard with their hands.

Her stating in the end of the poem “I have only myself. Put me on the train. I won't look back”, indicates that she is leaving Russia and its struggles behind, and has no intention of returning, and that she will overlook Stalin “defeating” Trotsky and causing his death, because even the darker things he did were for the the greater good. As Machiavelli once said, “the end justifies the means.”, ironic, as Leon Trotsky himself once stated “The end may justify the means as long as something justifies the end.”