I remember this poem (or a version of it) having been posted some time ago in the Deep End, which must mean it made an impression, since my memory isn't very good. It seems clearly Holocaust-related, but purposely difficult to work out in its details. This is apt in a way without being gimmicky. Post-Adorno Holocaust poetry is inherently problematic, tasked with the need to register that which is too big for the littleness of a poem, too horrible for the decorousness of a poem. The last thing such poetry should want to be (or seem) is all worked out.
"We've talked about this earlier" is, for one thing, somewhat unidiomatic; why not just "We talked about this before"? But, more importantly, it cuts off a larger context the way a Browning monologue would, indicating the need for imaginative effort on the reader's part.
In this passage…
they were the young, the old
who refused to quit life fully, satisfied
with lesser vestiges
the subversion of the idiomatic phrase "fully satisfied" by the comma between the words is curious. But this is perhaps the key idea of the poem, the "lesser vestiges" being represented by the poem itself.
Or something like that. This is a tough one, but does make an impression.
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