Tightened jaw, I did not love.
Flashback of myself jerked about,
legs high above my head, men
laughing, I came to sea drifts,
movement and crashing. I found I am
not so far from God exploding.
Gifting, a friend once said, is why we live.
Seven storks still and white on a gold lake.
My lazy eye glances back to that original
split, myself high above myself.
Whiplashed into forgetting, I didn’t know
hours from minutes. I was hypervigilant for
catastrophes. My head raging then numb.
The early garden bare, and now,
shocked with sudden memory,
I return to changing sky hues,
blooms of lilac bursting along sidewalks.
Lazy in the grass, I free myself of guilt,
imagine musicians in the park, us overcoming
ourselves. My eyes open before stars.
Holy these leaves, these skies.
What is torn opens for the light.
Source: This poem originally appeared in the April 2014 edition of poetry magazine.
Analysis:
In this poem, Luna uses poetic techniques such as alliteration, personification, and imagery to draw a connection with the reader to their current situation. Alliteration is used to add emphasis to her embarrassment in line 3 "my head, men laughing" and also to flash back to previous memories "shocked with sudden memories" and to draw a child like connection to innocence that is felt in the situation when Luna says "seven storks still". Personification also draw a connection with the reader to Luna's situation, for instance "flashback of myself jerked around" show the abrupt, uncomfortableness the author feels and helps the reader relate to it. She also does this through the lines "shocked with sudden memory" making the situation relatable because we have all felt that shock of a vivid rushing memory, good or bad. Finally Luna uses imagery throughout her writing, "changing sky hues" representing her life changing moment, "musicians in the park" painting us a peaceful picture, and the "blooms of lilac" that show her happy new beginning. All of these poetic techniques draw connections with the readers and make us a part of Luna's situation and understand her theme of giving all you have with the knowledge that you will not receive the equivalent in return.
