A nice intimate poem. No accident it appears on Mother's Day, I think,
Insect.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue Scalf" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: New Sub: After


> In a message dated 03/09/2002 6:35:15 PM Central Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> <<  After
>
>  He thought about it for years
>  but there was always
>  some reason for delay:
>  after Christmas, after his birthday,
>  after he'd dumped his current.
>  Then it was after the wedding,
>  after the christening,
>  after nursery school,
>  always after.
>
>  After the doctor
>  had given him the news,
>  he thought of things
>  growing over years.
>  After he'd made the connection,
>  he picked up the phone
>  but then it was too late.
>
>  He added a bunch of flowers
>  to the supermarket trolley
>  and on the way home,
>  he parked by the cemetery
>  and left the chrysanthemums,
>  ferns and gypsophila
>  on a stranger's grave. >>   I really like this poem, but I am feeling a
> little mentally dense.  Too much has been left out for my mind to try to
put
> it in there or figure it out.  Let's see if I can paraphrase it so far.
He
> had intentions to do something that he never did (as most of us do)
because
> there was always something to interfere and that seemed more important at
the
> time.  He pretty much seems a callous brute with the word choice of
"dumped
> his current."  So he doesn't have any real love for the woman to whom he
is
> married.  Perhaps he intended to reconcile with his first wife, make
amends?
> It is difficult to tell.
> After he receives bad news from his doctor, he buys flowers and puts them
on
> a stranger's grave (I really like this image and even the choice of
flowers).
>  However I am still left puzzled.  Is this the stranger now that he
intended
> to reconcile with (his first wife perhaps, his older children?)  I love
the
> storyline and the progression, and I find this poem sad and real..  But I
> really don't know the situation or what is happening.  Can these things be
> clarified without damage to the poem?