Sign Inventory, Week 8

“She Didn’t Even Wave”
-Ai

*The speaker carries on two conversations, one (in the past) with her mother moments before she dies and one with an unnamed “you.”

*Only the speaker’s mother “talks” in italics, but when the speaker “talks” to the unmentioned “you” there is no italics.

*The speaker buries her mother by herself.

*The speaker covers up her mother, but exposes herself in the next line: “but I couldn’t do much about her face, / blue-black and swollen, / so I covered it with a silk scarf. / I hike my dress up to my thighs / and rub them

*The speaker changes tenses from past to present on numerous occasions: so I covered her face-I hike my dress, It was real nice-I touch the rhinestone heart, I walked outside-and face the empty house, etc.

*The conversational interjections are unclear as to who is speaking: the speaker, the mother, the unnamed you?

*The poem is occupied with step-by-step actions: I do this, you did that, she did this, etc.

*The speaker is concerned with the sense of touch: I hike my dress to my thighs, I touch the rhinestone, you put your arms around me, she squeezed me so tight, hug me again.

*The poem centers around the fear of loss; the mother is concerned with her daughter leaving home for a man and then the daughter must deal with the death of her mother.

*Jean is the only name given. The mother is never named and neither is the you.