Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard G
I enjoyed this, but got lost trying to navigate the ending …
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My first reaction was similar to Richard’s. As a master of misreading, I first got:
as if I’ll find a clear note [and find] the string out of tune
It shouldn’t have taken me several readings to get something more plausible:
as if I’ll find a clear note [even though] the string [is now] out of tune
Like a string instrument that’s been lying around for years, the letters don’t ring true anymore.
Speaking of letters, I was so sure at the beginning that you were peeling apart pages of a diary or notebook that when you later find letters, I thought they were longhand characters. Yellowed and bound? I told you I was a master.
BTW, “carefully flip” is nearly an oxymoron, like “slowly scamper.”
I agree with Glenn that the poem is beautiful and touching (in every sense of the word). A treat to read.