Monument

It was pretty hard to choose a poem to write about this time around. Choosing just one out of around twenty of these poems wouldn’t be easy, I guess. But, as the blog title suggests, I chose Monument, because of the last stanza. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the poem is great as well; such as how Trethewey juxtaposes the ants “disappear[ing] into the subterranean” with the people in Vicksburg tunneling and living underground (Pilgrimage). I’m guessing that Trethewey’s mother was buried on her family’s land, due to her mother’s grave being untended. Maybe some sort of cemetery in the back yard, or something. What I don’t get is what exactly the author hasn’t done in the last stanza. “Believe me when I say/ I’ve tried not to begrudge them/ their industry, this reminder of what/ I haven’t done.” Is the author talking about her allowing her mother’s grave to go untended, or is she referring to something deeper? Maybe the ants bringing up pieces of soil “of which she will be a part” is a metaphor for the author bringing up memories of her mother from the depths of her subconscious? The most likely meaning, in my opinion, would perhaps be that the action of the ants living underground and making tunnels reminds of of what she hasn’t done; namely, actually tunneling and living underground, like the people before her did at Vicksburg. I guess any of those would explain why the ant mound would be “a blister on [her] heart.”