Making A Fist Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye

Making A Fist

Rating: 4.1


We forget that we are all dead men conversing wtih dead men.
—Jorge Luis Borges

For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,
I felt the life sliding out of me,
a drum in the desert, harder and harder to hear.
I was seven, I lay in the car
watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.

'How do you know if you are going to die?'
I begged my mother.
We had been traveling for days.
With strange confidence she answered,
'When you can no longer make a fist.'

Years later I smile to think of that journey,
the borders we must cross separately,
stamped with our unanswerable woes.
I who did not die, who am still living,
still lying in the backseat behind all my questions,
clenching and opening one small hand.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Mika Nakishima 27 November 2007

very...nice......really nice...i wish naomi didnt use religions in it tho -_-

8 13 Reply
Felix Nazario 08 February 2008

Yea................ >.<

5 8 Reply
Savita Tyagi 02 February 2013

Very nice! A mother's simple loving conversation can stay with a child for ever.

8 2 Reply
Pranab K Chakraborty 02 February 2013

Beautiful. The doctrine to fix the fist of existence. It's a feast of positive thought.........................................................Pranab k c

5 4 Reply
* Sunprincess * 11 February 2016

...........excellent poem....I could never ride in the back seat again ★

1 1 Reply

The poem makes a profound impression, almost pertinent point.

0 0 Reply
Dr Dillip K Swain 13 August 2023

I who did not die, who am still living, still lying in the backseat behind all my questions....I hold this part of this poem in high regard.

0 0 Reply
goldbee 17 July 2020

++1++ ++1++

0 0 Reply
Mahtab Bangalee 27 May 2018

Years later I smile to think of that journey, the borders we must cross separately, stamped with our unanswerable woes.

0 0 Reply
Rajesh Thankappan 01 June 2016

A very touching poem indeed. The road of life often offers bumpy ride and if we can negotiate it, well done!

4 0 Reply
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Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye

St. Louis, Missouri
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