Melt

[Caleb Murdock]

Leanne, I'm a big fan of the new second to last line, it makes it much more powerful. I like both ricochet lines. The old one sounded nicer but I like the meaning of the new one better.

Caleb, I read it as a marriage gone sour and in my mind "she" is a preteen girl still young enough to want to please and obey, but as things get dragged out and uglier between her parents she begins to emotionally distance herself. I extrapolate to imagine her getting involved in hard drugs etc, ending up totally numb and depressed, thus the bones vs a life. I like your miscarriage idea too. That's what I find so beautiful about poetry done well-- every reader brings his/her own experience to the poem and can see what makes most sense to them.

You're probably right that this is about an older daughter, from these lines:

She heard it all but, mindful to obey,
she didn't interfere, just slipped away.

"Didn't interfere" and "slipped away" is something that an older child could do -- it would just mean "she left" (either emotionally of physically). On the other hand, a child who is that old doesn't usually still "play".

Another reason why I thought this poem might be about a miscarriage is the words "though our phones we sank", which made me think that this was a young couple. I immediately thought of texting, which is done more by the young than adults. However, the reference to "phones" could have just meant phone conversations.

"Bringing forth the flesh and leaving bones" clearly implies a death, and that gets me back to the feeling that the poem isn't expressing enough grief for it to be the death of a child -- but then, the speaker may have expressed the bulk of her grief in other poems.

At times I've found myself thinking that "she" refers to the female life-force "anima".

Despite what you say, JC, I do think a little more clarity would help the poem. But in a sense you are right: this poem will appeal to any woman who has lost either a fetus or a child.