Reading poems in “Last Psalm at Sea Level” by Meg Day. The poem that I could relate, and understand to the most is Answer My Questions:. This poem make sure us think about the beginning of time in a more of a modern mindset, Meg Day writes
“Who called the time”
By saying this she make us question literal time and metaphorical time, in a sense that relates to others and to ourselves. When thinking about the literal numbers on the clock, do we ever question out loud why those numbers are on the clock? Or who even thought of numbers? Or even a more basic though who thought of the actual clock itself.
“To form the ones & twos
that make just after eleven”
Each of the sections she refers to like
“How taught them to hold the pencil
that recorded the hour, ticks marks
in a bedpost, or your height
against the kitchen wall”
I feel that this can be referred to plenty of things, it could mean by saying “ticks marks in a bedpost” the number of people you have slept with or the average kid playing and writing on there bed when younger. This has a much younger approach by saying
“height against the kitchen wall”
Because at a certain age you stop growing. Though I feel Meg Day has a purpose for writing these three stanzas before the last line, I believe she is trying to direct our attention away and then wants to hit us like a ton of bricks and says,
“How do you choose a coffin
for a body that’s still growing”
The definition of the word coffin is “a long, narrow box, typically of wood, in which a corpse is buried or cremated.” Which could be cremated as stated above and the coffin in buried. But the definition of the word grow is “of a living thing undergoing natural development by increasing in size and changing physically.” The two words coffin and growing can’t exist together. So to plainly answer Meg Day’s question… you can’t it’s not physically possible for this to happen. The coffin when your dead is fit to your size right at that moment. She does this on purpose to make us think about how the voice is feeling and that is is really that deep.
I think what Meg Day is talking about in this poem the voice is talking to us when they are alone, when this person is lonely, how do you cope with not wanting to be on earth anymore. By giving us her simple but complex thoughts in the beginning of this poem she gives us a hard look at the reality of dying when you are not ready.