Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Not good enough in the first place May 18, 2012

 

Four poems in two days, I should feel honored that she would think me smart enough to get her poetic references as she kicks me in the teeth.

The last – I am assuming it is the last – uses rhyme, a rare thing for her work, but well crafted none the less, built on a structure of four brief stanzas, with each stanza making a point in itself, but building to an overall meaning with the last terse rhyme.

The poem essentially says the relationship (I use that term loosely) had to come to an end, largely because it was car crash waiting to happen and besides, I didn’t measure up anyway.

The title – which is a key term both our jobs – makes it very clear who the target is of this bitter bit.

She breaks down her justification in each of four points, using words like “alarm,” “collision,” “deadline” to indicate real danger if she didn’t.

The poem’s first stanza more or less says she woke up before the alarm went off, and managed to put the brakes out before a real disaster or collision, and she managed to do this in the nick of time (deadline) so has no reason to regret the person she left behind – who didn’t toe the line in the first place

In other words, she didn’t need an alarm clock to tell her this wasn’t going to work, and because she slammed on the breaks in time, she’s not worried about it and has no regret about what happened, leaving behind someone who would not have measured up even had she given him the chance.

Although the tone is less severe than the other poems in this two-day series, its conclusion is just as lethal, a bullet to the brain I wasn’t good enough for her in the first place and doesn’t regret letting me go.

A brutal but honest and perhaps even accurate assessment. Who can tell?


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