13 years old

[Wjames]

Hello, everyone. I've added a spoiler that should help a good deal with clarity. I made an assumption that this phenomenon was well known, so that's my oversight. 

Wjames: you mentioned that the mother's addition seemed odd at the end, but she is introduced right off the bat. Did you miss the first part of the poem, or is there just an inappropriately brief introduction? More can be added.

I just meant that the end of the poem makes it seem like the poem is largely about the impact the mother has had on the narrator (with the spoiler, I see the poem differently).

"She'd steamed the life out of those beans" seemed to me the beans represented the narrator - and only caring if her child can shell her peas, I was reading it as though the mother was something of a tyrant who had hurt the kids development in someway, but we don't see how. If the poem were about that, I would want more content from the mother to show how they had impacted the kid.

After reading the spoiler, I see the mother doesn't understand the narrators deporsonalization. I do agree with Tranquil, this isn't something most readers will immediately think of - that's ok, though, I still enjoyed reading it and wondering what exactly had happened that day.