Looking back at some of her previously posted poems, I come to wonder if they are completely about her relationship, and perhaps just a bit about the chaotic work environment she has landed in.
Everybody has to be pointing fingers at everybody else looking for someone to blame when in fact they all are, each seeking to get his or her piece of the political pie – not completely understanding just how unreliable the Virgin Mayor can be.
So, when she posts a poem about an upside down world, she may well be speaking about her faulting relationship, but also about what goes on in her everyday life.
Although I believe my original assessment is correct, the poem also suggests how she – thinking she would become a player – maybe have been left out or under appreciated by the people she had teamed up with.
There is a sense of changing priorities on a day to day basis, new rules replacing old rules, when none of the rules make sense.
The scary part is that she has put her fate in the hands of people who may not have her best interests at heart or at least are so preoccupied with their own survival, she is not someone they are really considering.
“New order of the day (and of life) slays the upside down, down where we are frozen and dismayed, down where we are forgotten.”
If only she could grab hold of what she believes she deserves and this “upended, down-righted” way she might feel some justice.
In my other analysis of this poem, I assumed she referred to her lover’s engagement or marriage getting in the way of her happiness. But the poem might also be seen as more political, her search for her place in the mixed up day time job where everybody is looking out for their own interests, and if there is a sense here that she should be doing the same thing.
She makes reference to anti-rules of the day that she (and others have forgotten to obey, positioning herself as one of those at the bottom of this pyramid of power, and the whole mess seems to be killing off whatever pleasure she got from taking part in the thing in the first place.
If she could get a piece of the action, perhaps the whole thing would be worth her efforts.
I’m not being cynical here, as I might have been a year ago, when I viewed trickling up as a negative. I keep coming back to the basic concept that people need to get something out of life, otherwise, what’s the point of living it, and sometimes, you have to be a bit ruthless, otherwise, you get run over by other people who are perfectly willing to be ruthless on their own behalf.
Taking the poem out of the romantic, she seems to be turning the whole situation on its head, saying that instead of feeling guilty for what she wants, what she is seeking should be normal – in the other review, I claimed this about her feeling she deserves love. Here, it is just as true that obtaining power or prestige through whatever means must also be acceptable.
In other words, all the sinners are saints.
While I should be shocked by this world view in which anything goes as long as you end up on the winning side, this is much more a reflection of reality than most people are willing to admit.
What she may be saying here is: This is the way of the world, get used to or at least get out of the way. It is a dark world filled with dark people playing for keeps, and if she is to survive in this world, she has to be playing by the same anti-rules.
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