Favorite Poems: After a Death Roo Borson

After a Death
pg. 967

Seeing that there's no other way,
I turn his absence into a chair.
I can sit in it,
gaze out through the window.
and then go out into the world.
And I can return then with my useless love,
to rest,
because the chair is there.

I was drawn to this poem becasue of the imagery that was set up in such a simple poem, as it is short. I like this poem becasue it sets up such a feeling of sadness and comfort in only eight lines. This poem is under the language section, appropriatly, as seeing how she uses a chair for a metaphor of hte loved one she lost. The speaker, presumeably a woman, as she talksabout "his love" might be talking about her father or a lover, as the poem is unclear. The ambiguity however allows the reader to use their imagination and interperate the poem uniquely.

If she were talkign about her father, the "chair" might be the support of her parental figure, and how she still needs his support to live in saying "seeing theres no other way". The cahir is her stability, as it is "always there" which provides comfort for the girl in her sorrows. The peom can easily be about her lover or husband, as she takes her "useless love" (maybe she is not ready to go back out into the world) as she returns to the chair. The window acts as a means of distraction, and a look into the other side of sorts.