The poem she posted a week ago may well explain the growing
distance between us.
The poem talks about her sharing her private hell with
somebody who was supportive enough to keep her from blaming herself for all the
bad things that have happened in her life, this backlog of self-incrimination
by which she has judged herself.
Just who this trusting person is, I can’t say for certain,
but it certainly not me.
My best guess would make it out to be our temporary boss,
who had taken her under his wing, giving her advice on how to deal with her
stalker as well as mentoring her.
She claims that when he first became our temporary boss, he
was rude to her and demanding, criticizing her in front of the other employees,
a condition that has obviously changed over the last few months as she came to
trust him more and more – he being kind enough so she could tell him some of
her darkest secrets.
This poem seems to be a reflection about his influence on
her, giving her the affirmation, she so desperately needs.
The structure of the poem shows her remarkable skill as a
wordsmith, the use of parallel phrases to build tension in the second part to
come to a dramatic conclusion.
But the brilliant part of the poems comes in the set up in
the first part, where she sets up reader’s expectation that she be found guilty
of all she’s blamed herself for in the past to ultimately and unexpectedly come
to the opposite conclusion of innocent.
Justice is about the speaker’s realization that she has been
wrong about thinking herself as guilty for all this time, blaming herself for
everything bad that has happened, and then finally, when she trusted someone
else to open up to him, he guided her out of the maize of self-incrimination,
someone kind and caring, who listened and then gave sage advice so ultimately
she came out understanding she was right all along.
This is not a poem written to this kind person, but an
internal monologue, one part of herself talking to another part of herself, passing
judgement on herself, but coming up with a positive conclusion, celebrating the
person who helped to achieve this, someone wise, kind and caring.
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