Blindly in Love

Fucked Up Ode
By Dean Young

We all know that moment when the woman              1
lays her hand on the mans scar. We have all              2
heard water pouring in Brahms, wrens twitter           3
in the flowering bush. Still we don't                           4
understand each other? What a lot                             5
of practice it takes making the howling                     6
face blank. We manage the couch up the stairs'         7
right angle, we've touched each other                        8
exactly right, both touching and being touched         9
but then we miss each other by seconds                    10
which is all the chaos needs. It's not just mis-           11
hearing that makes us shout what we don't mean,     12
throw money on the table and leave. Always            13
too much and not enough, all those workbooks        14
full of calculations worthless. We swore                   15
each day we'd check the tadpoles, threw                   16
the knife so far into the air, we forgot                        17
to keep watch for it coming back down.                    18
How many letters are being crumpled up                  19
right now? I find myself saying I love you                20
to almost nothing, to fog. Can't we                            21
go back to being children with keys                          22
looped on string around our necks?                           23


   Dean Young has created a somber poem that follows the rocky relationship between two people through the conflicts they face and ultimately destroy them. His message within this poem is that love can change and disappear without warning and consequently, he wishes he could be a child again when life was much simpler. He utilizes imagery, a confused and upset tone, and unique diction to convey his emotions through this poem.
   At the beginning of Young's poem, he suggests a typical scenario in a relationship or an image his reader can picture of a woman placing her hand on her significant others scars, signifying that she accepts him and loves him with all of his imperfections. Using first-person point of view, Young continues to state "We" when discussing things so he can create a sort of bond and connection with his readers and so the readers can do the same to his words that follow. The next piece to his poem is referencing Brahms, a german composer and pianist of the romantic period, and states "we have all heard water pouring in Brahms" (2-3). Young follows this by mentioning wrens, a type of small bird know for being near homes, and implies that we have all heard these as well. Both of these references suggest and romantic, comfortable feeling to both Young and his readers. In addition, Young provides his readers with clear imagery of the bird and its "twitter" (3), and of how the music sounds which allows the reader to connect and understand his references better. The matter-of-fact tone in these first few lines suggests that there should be no problems between people if they all hear and see the same things, however, this quickly changes.
   In the following line, Young presents a question to his readers. "Still we don't understand each other?"(4-5); suddenly, the mood and tone of the poem shifts completely. Young begins to reference all that his significant other and himself have done together, from moving furniture to "touching and being touched" (9). These examples provide great imagery and insight into the relationship between these two individuals. Young makes the reader see that everything may seem great from the outside, but that happiness is not always present. He states, "we miss each other by seconds which is all the chaos needs" (10-11), alluding to the idea that it does not take much for a relationship to crumble. From here, Young lists off a handful of the broken promises and issues that arise between the couple that lead them to fall apart. He writes, "It's not just mis-hearing that makes us shout what we don't mean, throw money on the table and leave"(11-13), implying that their issues are deeper than misunderstanding each other. The meaningless things such as "workbooks full of calculations" (14-15) or "check[ing] the tadpoles" (16) are made out to be the biggest issues, however, Young is acknowledging that they simply are not. What is a great issue, metaphorically and literally speaking, is that the couple "threw the knife so far into the air, we forgot to keep watch for it coming back down" (16-18), implying that they knew their was danger in their relationship yet they tried to avoid it even when it was very obvious something was wrong. These references all create great imagery in the poem, however, they also allude to the issues present in the relationship.
   The final lines of this poem revolve around Young reviewing the end of the relationship in his head and trying to make sense of and simplify the situation he's in. His tone in these final lines turns to one of sadness and desperation, he seems to have lost all his ambition to work through the troubles his relationship faced and has come to terms with it's failure. He states that he "find[s] [him]self saying I love you to almost nothing, to fog" (20-21), alluding to the fact that his relationship has diminished and he is trying to find solitude in that. Young finishes the poem with a final plea, "Can't we go back to being children with keys looped on string around our necks?" (21-23), as if begging for simpler days again in his life.
   Young's poem is a canvas for many emotions to explode on and he uses a constantly changing tone, great imagery, and unique wording to make this happen. This poem does a fantastic job conveying the issues a relationship can face and how blind people in relationships can be to the sour feelings present.