"Facing It" is a poem that deals with war-related trauma and the act of confronting painful emotions. But it is also a poem that addresses racism and the ways in which American society fails to properly acknowledge the sacrifice Black soldiers made in the Vietnam War. The first line highlights the way that the poem approaches the topic of race, as the speaker clarifies right away that he is Black. He says, "My black face fades / hiding inside the black granite."
As the poem progresses, it will become clear that the "black granite" belongs to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. At this point, though, readers are only told that the speaker loses the sight of his own reflection inside a slab of dark stone and that this experience seems to trigger intense emotion. "I said I wouldn't / dammit," the speaker says, going on to tell himself, "No tears." These words indicate that the speaker has tried to prepare himself to deal with emotions that clearly end up getting the better of him. After all, the mere fact that the speaker reminds himself of his determination not to cry suggests that he has already begun to tear up.
The speaker's assertion in line 5 that he is "stone" presents readers with the metaphorical idea that the speaker has literally become one with the dark stone of the memorial. On another level, though, this statement is also an indication of the speaker's desire to stand strong in the face of great emotion. The speaker wants to be as unmovable as stone, yet he immediately goes on to say, "I'm flesh." He recognizes that he is, in the end, human and, therefore, subject to all the vulnerability and emotional sensitivity that comes along with the human condition.
These opening lines establish the poem's musicality as well. For example, the very first line contains the alliteration of the soft /f/ sound while also featuring the assonant long /ay/ sound:
My black face fades
The combination of these sounds subtly smooths out the second half of this line, whereas the first half of the line sounds clipped and rhythmic with the speaker's use of the /b/, /l/, and /ck/ sounds in the word "black." By using these contrasting sounds, then, the speaker imbues the opening line with a push-and-pull rhythm that is both pleasing and chewy, both coaxing readers through while also forcing them work their way through a certain feeling of muscularity within the words themselves.
The speaker also uses assonance to emphasize the long /i/ sound in line 2:
hiding inside the black granite.
Once again, this bolsters the musicality of the speaker's language. Later, "granite" is echoed by the word "dammit" in line 4, creating an internal slant rhyme.
All in all, then, these opening lines are striking and attention-grabbing because of their rich, textured sound, which elevates the speaker's language and, in this way, conveys his emotional and reflective state of mind.