The Summer I Was Sixteen: I found this poem to be very familiar for me. It used a lot of imagery and reminded me of summers I have had in my teenage years. The third stanza was my favorite.. “Past cherry-colas, hotdogs, dreamsicles, we came to the counter where bees staggered into root beer cups and drowned.” This was obviously a public pool but it reminded me of my own backyard with little plastic cups of iced tea sitting on the deck filled with ants or bees while we caught some rays or splashed around in the pool.
Numbers: I found that the writer of this poem used the number theme but in different situations. It was really cool to read each stanza to see the difference from the one before it. I really like how the last stanza counted down from three to one, symbolizing the countdown to the end. “Three boys beyond their mothers call, two italians off to sea, one sock that isn’t anywhere you look.”
Lines: I really enjoyed this poem, although I couldn’t figure it out at first. The idea of a line is so simple but in the poem she shows the complexities of it. “between two lines points of view, a line of vision..”
The Cord: I felt like the cord was a leash for the daughter. The mother would only let her go so far on the telephone but then she would tug on it when it was unsafe territory. The mother was okay with the fact that the girl talked for hours to her friends and not to her, but she kept her close by the cord of the phone.
