Amiri Baraka

Incident

Incident - meaning Summary

A Sudden, Incomprehensible Violence

This poem describes a sudden, brutal street killing and dwells on its aftermath. The narrative compresses the moment of shooting, the victim's fall and death, and the spread of his image. The killer is unnamed and unexplained, known only by movement and skill. The poem emphasizes the gap between visible traces—blood, pictures, a frozen expression—and the absence of fuller understanding about motive or identity.

Read Complete Analyses

He came back and shot. He shot him. When he came back, he shot, and he fell, stumbling, past the shadow wood, down, shot, dying, dead, to full halt. At the bottom, bleeding, shot dead. He died then, there after the fall, the speeding bullet, tore his face and blood sprayed fine over the killer and the grey light. Pictures of the dead man, are everywhere. And his spirit sucks up the light. But he died in darkness darker than his soul and everything tumbled blindly with him dying down the stairs. We have no word on the killer, except he came back, from somewhere to do what he did. And shot only once into his victim's stare, and left him quickly when the blood ran out. We know the killer was skillful, quick, and silent, and that the victim probably knew him. Other than that, aside from the caked sourness of the dead man's expression, and the cool surprise in the fixture of his hands and fingers, we know nothing.

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