SIGNS
SIGNS
by Stefanie Bennett
... You remained the same
For 40 years:
You put the cat out
Instead
Of the milk money -.
The squatter's chair -.
The imaginary Diva
From next door -.
The pilot-light
And a picture
Postcard
Of Pompeii.
Always, you strayed
My way
As before,
Tramping
Grand Elysium Fields
And more,
Back then, when
It was
We who were
... The living.
Love the line breaks and punc! I get the impression of two lovers growing apart with ominous conotations including Pompeii and “Tramping Grand Elysium Fields…” or perhaps this other person just did not have their priorities set straight and got distracted by this or that…sometimes people end up wanting different things out of life and have too variant of life perspectives. In any case, the place where i kept doubting this ‘interpretation’ in the poem is in the 2nd stanza where the poet says “Always, you strayed/ My way/ As before,…”. The lover or (significant other, friend) is straying to the direction or disposition of the poet? Perhaps i’m reading it wrong or reading too much into it. Then i got to thinking that instead of the two people growing apart maybe they’re just coasting carefree thru life together like a ride on a log-raft in the middle of the ocean going where the tide takes you. hmm. Lots to think about here. Tramping the Elysium Fields (Greek afterlife heaven) might signify living in the present with no thought or worry about tomorrow. And then the poem ends magnificently in bringing the two people together with the use of ‘we’ “who were/ …The living.” This ending has me leaning towards the interpretation where this poem is about lifestyle or life perspective lived by a couple and not that two people grew apart. Excellent read!