The Shape of Our Faces No Longer Matters is a poignant and moving poetry collection about the experience of warfare. Written by decorated war veteran Gerardo Mena, the collection includes personal stories and emotions, giving an insight into the horrific things experienced by soldiers.
Perhaps Mena's most well-known poem is "So I was a Coffin," in which Mena uses a number of significant images and symbols, in order to depict the contrast between the expectations and realities of warfare. Mena's speaker tells us that he was told to be a "spear," suggesting elements of bravery and strength. However, the realities of warfare, symbolized here by the "wind," began to blow, and the soldier "leaned into a man, who leaned into a child." This image shows the reality of how the speaker feels, emphasizing his vulnerability.
Mena's collection also contains many other pertinent images. For example, in "How to Build a Sand Castle," he introduces the eerie image of "white powdered sand," that "was not sand." In "Baring the Trees," Mena describes how "the dead hang from the dead like leaves upon an ashen tree." These horrific images of warfare can be compared to the First World War poetry of Wilfred Owen, who similarly depicted the horrors of warfare using dark images.
