Conversation
We smile at each other
and I lean back against the wicker couch.
How does it feel to be dead? I say.
You touch my knees with your blue fingers.
And when you open your mouth,
a ball of yellow light falls to the floor
and burns a hole through it.
Don't tell me, I say. I don't want to hear.
Did you ever, you start,
wear a certain kind of dress
and just by accident,
so inconsequential you barely notice it,
your fingers graze that dress
and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,
you see it too
and you realize how that image
is simply the extension of another image,
that your own life
is a chain of words
that one day will snap.
Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,
and beginning to rise heavenward
in their confirmation dresses,
like white helium balloons,
the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,
and above all that,
that's where I'm floating,
and that's what it's like
only ten times clearer,
ten times more horrible.
Could anyone alive survive it?
This poem is obviously talking about death. The speaker is not afraid, but at the same time does not want to know the answers about death. This poem is very easy to relate to because I believe death is a common event that every one often wonders about. The begining of the poem is saying how death is right there, the speaker can touch it but he/she is not ready to fully comprehend what death is all about. This interpretation really hit home with me because I know i often wonder about things you can only learn about through experience but if i ever had the chance to finally know I would be to scared to take that risk. Death is a big deal, its not something that can be undone and that's why people are so hesitant and curious about it. Later on in the poem it becomes noticeable that not only can the speaker almost touch death but there are almost in a way battling with it, they are in that place between life and death where you know your time is coming. They are about to find out all the answers, some already answered but believe it to be "ten times more horrible." My personal favorite line from this poem is "that your own life is just a chain of words that one day will snap" because that is so true. We all live like nothing bad will ever happen to us, we do things, and say things that maybe aren't so great but we dont think about their consequences. In an instant we could be gone and all those words will just be memories, all the conversations we've shared with people will now be remembered but nothing else of us will be left. For me, that's a very scary thought. Once were gone, we are gone forever and everything we do or said or even touched. This poem is very relatable to pretty much anyone who has ever experinced fear of dying. It uses elaborate imagery as well as extended metaphors to further explain the speakers "conversation" with death.
and I lean back against the wicker couch.
How does it feel to be dead? I say.
You touch my knees with your blue fingers.
And when you open your mouth,
a ball of yellow light falls to the floor
and burns a hole through it.
Don't tell me, I say. I don't want to hear.
Did you ever, you start,
wear a certain kind of dress
and just by accident,
so inconsequential you barely notice it,
your fingers graze that dress
and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,
you see it too
and you realize how that image
is simply the extension of another image,
that your own life
is a chain of words
that one day will snap.
Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,
and beginning to rise heavenward
in their confirmation dresses,
like white helium balloons,
the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,
and above all that,
that's where I'm floating,
and that's what it's like
only ten times clearer,
ten times more horrible.
Could anyone alive survive it?
This poem is obviously talking about death. The speaker is not afraid, but at the same time does not want to know the answers about death. This poem is very easy to relate to because I believe death is a common event that every one often wonders about. The begining of the poem is saying how death is right there, the speaker can touch it but he/she is not ready to fully comprehend what death is all about. This interpretation really hit home with me because I know i often wonder about things you can only learn about through experience but if i ever had the chance to finally know I would be to scared to take that risk. Death is a big deal, its not something that can be undone and that's why people are so hesitant and curious about it. Later on in the poem it becomes noticeable that not only can the speaker almost touch death but there are almost in a way battling with it, they are in that place between life and death where you know your time is coming. They are about to find out all the answers, some already answered but believe it to be "ten times more horrible." My personal favorite line from this poem is "that your own life is just a chain of words that one day will snap" because that is so true. We all live like nothing bad will ever happen to us, we do things, and say things that maybe aren't so great but we dont think about their consequences. In an instant we could be gone and all those words will just be memories, all the conversations we've shared with people will now be remembered but nothing else of us will be left. For me, that's a very scary thought. Once were gone, we are gone forever and everything we do or said or even touched. This poem is very relatable to pretty much anyone who has ever experinced fear of dying. It uses elaborate imagery as well as extended metaphors to further explain the speakers "conversation" with death.
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