Melt

[Caleb Murdock]

I think overall the edit clears things up especially the end. I also like the original ricochet line better.

Funny how different interpretations are here, I saw this clearly as divorcing parents who forgot about their daughter, who drifted off to ??? -- her own world perhaps in a good way or not, but not part of their lives anymore. Perhaps it was a pregnancy early lost, I didn't see that...but it's what it is. Regret. And well done for all that; but I still don't get melt. Makes me think of a sandwich.

I'm chuckling over this post. I'm glad to know that it isn't just me who doesn't immediately understand.

The poem could be either about a child or a fetus. If it is about a fetus, then how does the poet know the fetus is a girl? I can see a miscarriage being described as the fetus melting away, but a child doesn't just melt away. Also, how do you drain a fetus' world of play?

The description of the relationship in the first stanza makes it sound like this is a very new relationship, not a marriage. The mention of libido could be either about a new or an old relationship (lbido lost in the marriage, or perhaps libido lost from the pregnancy). Also, the mention of a "loan" could mean any kind of loan -- both new and married couples take out loans together.

If this is a child and not a fetus, there is no sense that "she" has any kind of character (a child would have a distinct character and a fetus would not). Also, the death of a child is a HUGE thing, and this poem is expressing mild grief.

The line about bringing forth flesh and leaving bones strikes me as something a poet might say about a fetus, but I guess that could be said of a child too -- though, again, some thoughts about the child's character would be appropriate.

Well, it looks like I'm still confused.