Li Young Lee's Gift

The Gift

To pull the metal splinter from my palm

my father recited a story in a low voice.

I watched his lovely face and not the blade.

Before the story ended, he’d removed

the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.

I can’t remember the tale,

but hear his voice still, a well

of dark water, a prayer.

And I recall his hands,

two measures of tenderness

he laid against my face,

the flames of discipline

he raised above my head.

Had you entered that afternoon

you would have thought you saw a man

planting something in a boy’s palm,

a silver tear, a tiny flame.

Had you followed that boy

you would have arrived here,

where I bend over my wife’s right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down

so carefully she feels no pain.

Watch as I lift the splinter out.

I was seven when my father

took my hand like this,

and I did not hold that shard

between my fingers and think,

Metal that will bury me,

christen it Little Assassin,

Ore Going Deep for My Heart.

And I did not lift up my wound and cry,

Death visited here!

I did what a child does

when he’s given something to keep.

I kissed my father.

In “The Gift,” Li Young Lee describes the narrator’s memories of his father removing splinters from his hand. This poem reminded me of “A Story,” another Li Young Lee poem that describes the interaction and relationship between a father and son. However, “A Story” dealt with the mental turmoil of a father looking ahead to the day when his son will leave him and wishing that the time will never come, whereas “The Gift” focuses on the boy’s perspective and is set in the boy’s adulthood, contrary to “A Story.” The opposite natures of “The Gift” and “A Story,” which I had read before, emphasizes the meaning drawn from both. Despite their contrasts, these two poems both involve the act of a father telling his son a story, but establish different situations and frame of references. I found both “The Gift” and “A Story” to be enjoyable reads and meaningful individually, but the difference in point of view and time frame between the two makes both more interesting to read. The title of “The Gift” is significant because the father does not actually procure any gift for his son, and the gift referred to by the poem is both the act of removing a source of physical pain for his son and the actual splinter itself. Although in terms of physical wellness, the boy is no better off than he as before suffering from the splinter, after his father removes it, he has received the physical gift of the shard previously embedded in his hand and the unspoken gift of familial love. It is ironic that the splinter is described as a gift that the narrator is “given . . . to keep” by his father when the original source of pain was the splinter itself, contrasting with the positive connotation of a gift (34). Shifts in the poem occur after the second stanza, within the third stanza, and within the fourth stanza. The first shift is from the narrator’s simple description of how his father removed the splinter to the theoretical thoughts of the readers “[had] [they] walked in that afternoon” (14). The third stanza contains a smooth shift where the narrator states that “[had] [they] followed that boy [they] would have arrived here” in the present setting where he performs the same procedure on his wife that his father performed on him (20-21). Within the final stanza, the narrator shifts back to his childhood to conclude with his childhood expression of love for his father for the gift given through removing a splinter. These shifts demonstrate the universal nature of relationships in which loving individuals patiently relieve others of suffering and how the power of healing may be passed down forever. They also depict how love is a quality that must also be learned about. The poem includes intricate imagery where the narrator tells the the reader to “[look] how [he] [shaves] [his wife’s] thumbnail down so carefully she feels no pain” (23-24). This opening to the final stanza not only demonstrates how the narrator has taken on his father’s tender, caring traits, but also draws the reader into a more tangible experience, building a closer connection between the reader and narrator through a common human experience. In addition, the “silver tear” and “tiny flame” that serve as metaphors for what the father uses to remove the splinter also allude to the pain the boy is suffering and the sadness and anger the father feels from having to witness his son’s condition, with the tear representing sadness and flame representing anger. However, the anger is not large in magnitude, and the sadness has a tender, valuable quality to it which can only be felt in the moments when the father is removing a simple splinter from the hand of his son. The end of the poem demonstrates an unexpected reaction of the narrator in regards to the “iron sliver [he] thought [he’d] die from” (5). Despite the initial depiction of the narrator’s fear of the sliver, at the end of the poem, he does not call it “Little Assassin, One Going Deep For [His] Heart,” a reaction that would be expected based on his first impressions at the beginning of the poem. The personification of the shard emphasizes the sense of attack the narrator feels as a boy. It is interesting how the heart is mentioned instead of the hand, showing a focus on mental rather than physical aspects. Finally, although the narrator, as a boy, views the shard as “[metal] that will bury [him]” and a visit from death, demonstrates gratitude towards his father rather than expressing the negative influence of the splinter (28). The conclusion of this poem stresses the importance of appreciating small actions, showing how the simple removal of a small injury prompts the child to kiss his father, as if he were “given something to keep” (34). The poem illustrates how parental love and acts of healing are some of the greatest gifts one can receive, in addition to demonstrating the importance of focusing on the positivity that others provide rather than dwelling upon misfortunes.