This poem touches on both loneliness and at the same time the connection between both the living and the dead and the living and the estranged. The tone of the poem is conversational, and the speaker quickly jumps from one subject to another. It reads almost as a telephone conversation because the lines are so short. The speaker directly address her ancestors, and while some of the statements are profound — for example “the mad blue terror of dying” — others are more lighthearted, like “I secretly hope someone rings the doorbell so they cannot recognize me.” The poem then shifts after that line to an image of what I believe to be an immigrant with only a valise. It shows the interconnected nature of herself and her ancestors because the image begins with her face mask and the speaker imagining what it might have looked like to leave everything behind. This is later followed by the line “Thank you for that,” my favorite line in the poem. The speaker is thanking her ancestors for their sacrifices so she could have a better life.
Mary Ruefle, “Open Letter to My Ancestors”
Apr 25th, 2017 by young18