American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin (“I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison”) by Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin belongs to his 2018 collection, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, which was written in response to the oppressive political climate in the U.S. following Donald Trump's election. This poem seriously addresses the issues such as racism, violence against blacks and restrictions in artistic freedom. Hayes reimagines the sonnet as both a creative and oppressive form as the poetics of whites are entirely different from the experience of blacks 

"I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison,

Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame."

The phrase "I lock you in an American sonnet" immediately challenges the traditional sonnet form, it suggests restrictions rather than artistic beauty and freedom of expression. The American sonnet becomes a metaphor for systemic oppression, particularly regarding race.

The comparison to a prison and a panic closet implies both physical and psychological confinement. It marks the historical and contemporary imprisonment of Black individuals in America. "A little room in a house set aflame" evokes images of crisis . It may allude to historical events like the Tulsa Race Massacre (1921) or the broader experience of racial violence where Black individuals have often been metaphorically (and literally) trapped in burning .

"I lock you in a form that is part music box, part meat

Grinder to separate the song of the bird from the bone."

The music box represents structured beauty, while the meat grinder suggests destruction and brutality. This paradox mirrors the duality of the sonnet—a form historically associated with poetic refinement and beauty but redesigned here to contain violence.

The image of separating "the song of the bird from the bone" metaphorically expresses the forced division of Black artistry (the song) from Black suffering (the bone). It may reference how Black cultural contributions—music, poetry, and activism—are often appropriated or detached from their painful origins.

"I lock your persona in a dream-inducing sleeper hold

While your better selves watch from the bleachers."

The sleeper hold is a wrestling move that causes unconsciousness, symbolizing systemic brutality and violence. It also recalls the physical violence inflicted on Black bodies, including police brutality. It also remind the tragic murder of George Floyd, an afro- American common man by a white police officer. Among these struggles individuals can only be passive observers rather than active agents of change.

"I make you both gym & crow here. As the crow

You undergo a beautiful catharsis trapped one night"

The juxtaposition of "gym & crow" references two racially charged concepts:

The gym may symbolize structured discipline and order, or even spaces like schools where Black students have historically been marginalized.

"Crow" likely references Jim Crow laws, the segregationist policies that governed the American South until the Civil Rights Movement.the purpose of Jim Crow laws was to enforce racial segregation and discrimination against Black people in the American South, limiting their rights and opportunities. 

As a crow, the subject undergoes "a beautiful catharsis", suggesting an emotional release through suffering, a possible allusion to the endurance of Black individuals despite oppression.

"In the shadows of the gym. As the gym, the feel of crow-

Shit dropping to your floors is not unlike the stars

Falling from the pep rally posters on your walls.

The shadows of the gym mark themes of marginalization and exclusion. The crow, a symbol of Blackness, is trapped within a white institutional space. "Crow-shit dropping to your floors" could symbolize the disregard for Black suffering—how the remnants of racial injustice are dismissed.

Pep rally means the gathering of middle school students before sporting events.

 make you a box of darkness with a bird in its heart."

The bird in its heart may reference the caged bird motif found in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, symbolizing both oppression and hope.

"Voltas of acoustics, instinct & metaphor. It is not enough

To love you. It is not enough to want you destroyed."

The phrase "voltas of acoustics" refers to the volta, a traditional shift in thought in a sonnet. Here, Hayes expands the volta beyond poetic convention, suggesting the shifting sounds, instincts, and metaphors that shape Black existence.

the poet acknowledges that neither love nor destruction is a sufficient response to racial violence and history. 

 Analysis

The poem engages deeply with American history, particularly the historical context of slavery, segregation, and systemic racism.

References to Jim Crow, prisons, and violence evoke the historical oppression of Black people, from slavery to mass incarceration.

The use of sonnet form subverts a traditionally European, often white-dominated poetic structure, transforming it into a vessel for Black experience