Yusef Komunyakaa's Facing it
*The speaker seems to be hiding from something at the beginning of the poem, it could be his feeling or the reality of the past that is now settling in.
*"I'm stone, I'm flesh" He is going from memory to the present, he is remembering what happened while he was in the Vietnam war. His reflection that is depending on the light is making him turn from stone to flesh, by the second.
*He clearly survived the war, but his friend "Andrew Johnson didn't, as he puts his finger on the name, the horrible death replays in his mind, Andrew was killed by the booby trap and the speaker saw it. He thought that he too should be dead.
*The lady that walked by could be someone that also escape death, and as she passes the wall, Andrew remains dead, she could have saved him but chose to let him die.
*The white vet's image is Andrew, he is now bringing the name on the wall to life. He should have been dead, he didn't go out like a soldier, he didn't fight back to save his friend's life, he hid inside the black granite! Now Andrew doesn't see his as a real "Soldier" He sees right through him.
*As the vet fades into the stone, or disappears, he sees a lady that is trying to erase the names, could that be Andrew's wife, that does want to believe that he is dead? or maybe Andrews mother? and as he realize that she is brushing a boy's hair, that little boy can be Andrew as a young boy or Andrew's son, mourning his deceased father.
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Try not to make too much of a "plot" out of this sequence of images. Think of it as a meditation on war, and its impact on the self, society; the simple, "innocent" act of brushing the boy's hair is quite powerful, in the context of the black granite memorial--the image of erasure is also disturbing...why? See also Olya's blog, my comments there, and my comments on Ayesha's blog...
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