Adolescence 2

Although it is night, I sit in the bathroom, waiting.

Sweat prickles behind my knees, the baby-breasts are alert.

Venetian blinds slice up the moon; the tiles quiver in pale strips.

Then they come, the three seal men with eyes as round

As dinner plates and eyelashes like sharpened tines.

They bring the scent of licorice. One sits in the washbowl,

One on the bathtub edge; one leans against the door.

“Can you feel it yet?” they whisper.

I don’t know what to say, again. They chuckle,

Patting their sleek bodies with their hands.

“Well, maybe next time.” And they rise,

Glittering like pools of ink under moonlight,

And vanish. I clutch at the ragged holes

They leave behind, here at the edge of darkness.

Night rests like a ball of fur on my tongue.

Interpretation:

     In the first stanza the author is waiting for someone or something to happen. “The baby-breasts are alert.” Letting us know she is young and her body is experiencing something. In the first Stanza she gives a description of the place she is sitting in.  It is a lonely place or a private place. She describes the condition of the place. In line three she may be in Venice an Italian place as she gives reference to the blinds as it slices up the moon.  In line three she gives a description of the tiles on the wall and their color. She is suggesting that the tiles tremble or they are breaking maybe because in her imagination everything is breaking down in her world and now everything in her childhood life is fading away. In the second line she is nervous and anxious about who or what is coming.

     In the second stanza “they come” referring to cockroaches. In her imagination she is being interrogated by “The three seal men.” referred as cockroaches. The word seal means to confirm something so in her imagination the cockroaches seal the deal of her adolescence. In line six the author is suggesting that the cockroaches smell like candy. She remembers the scent of her childhood it smells sweet. In line eight “Can you feel it yet?” Sums up her anticipation and anxiety/Can she feel her puberty spurt? Yet! They whisper suggests that it is something she doesn’t want anyone to know about it is their secret.