Poetry 180

009 The Cord

The Cord

Leanne O’Sullivan

I used to lie on the floor for hours after
school with the phone cradled between
my shoulder and my ear, a plate of cold
rice to my left, my school books to my right.
Twirling the cord between my fingers
I spoke to friends who recognized the
language of our realm. Throats and lungs
swollen, we talked into the heart of the night,
toying with the idea of hair dye and suicide,
about the boys who didn’t love us,
who we loved too much, the pang
of the nights. Each sentence was
new territory, like a door someone was
rushing into, the glass shattering
with delirium, with knowledge and fear.
My Mother never complained about the phone bill,
what it cost for her daughter to disappear
behind a door, watching the cord
stretching its muscle away from her.
Perhaps she thought it was the only way
she could reach me, sending me away
to speak in the underworld.
As long as I was speaking
she could put my ear to the tenuous earth
and allow me to listen, to decipher.
And these were the elements of my Mother,
the earthed wire, the burning cable,
as if she flowed into the room with
me to somehow say, Stay where I can reach you,
the dim room, the dark earth. Speak of this
and when you feel removed from it
I will pull the cord and take you
back towards me.

The controlling idea of The Cord is trying to tell about a mainly a high school life of a teenage girl going through her experiences of teenage years and school.  O' Sullivan describes the girls life as a normal teenage life going through the ups and downs and obstacles that she may face. The author uses metaphors a comparison of two unlikely things utilizing the words like or as. " Each sentence was new territory, like a door someone was rushing into, the glass shattering with delirium, with knowledge and fear." The person described in the poem seems to be going through a heart break or a lost relationship and is describing her feelings as a cord that she wants to take and bring back into her life.