Analysis of Light Switch
Light switches off
Disrobes the dark.
Like a chicken's neck rings at its demise.
In a black hole in space and time.
I call out my daughter's name,
She answers not in this hospital room as cold
Assumes I'll abandon her to a
Soliloquy of personalities
Counseling themselves.
On the edge
Of her bed I desperately try
To understand
Jumbled words without meds as referee,
Describing her history,
Multi color squares of a patchwork quilt now askew
Stitched with names of snowmen in spring.
As we "talk"
We thumb through a cardboard shoebox of
Faded photos of her childhood before and after my divorce that
Weave and tie
Threads together from our tattered past.
My frayed nerves decipher, deflect, or buffer
Every loaded response she utters
Until she whispers low and clear,
"I love you, Mom."
Cold draft relents, quilt squares align
Like a jigsaw puzzle picture patiently done,
I embrace her thin frame and warm arms take hold,
Not knowing how,
Or for how long,
She'll keep
Her light
Switched
On.
Scheme | XXXXXAXXX XBXCCXX XXXBXXXXX XXAXXXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101 101 1010111101 00110101 1111101 11010110111 011010010 010010100 10001 101 101110001 101 101011101 0100100 101011011101 1111101 111 11101101 101101010101011 101 1010110101 11101001110 1001001110 01110101 1111 1111101 10110101001 10101101111 1101 1111 11 01 1 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 997 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 7, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
About this poem
Poem written in response to a personal situation in my life and a writing prompt from a poetry class.
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"Light Switch" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/156129/light-switch>.
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