by Naomi Shihab Nye
This poem describes Arab-American author Naomi Shihab Nye's experience as a little girl riding in a car through Mexico. She talks about the first time she feels like she is dying, she uses metaphors to describe the way she feels, her stomach (melon) feels split open, and her drum (heart) feels like it is out of rhythm. Nye asks her mom how she knows when she is dead, and her mom tells her it is when she no longer can make a fist. This poem, while the words sound morbid, the poem doesn't have a sad feeling. I think she is feeling stressed for the first time, and in the last second of the poem she reflects on the first time she feels like she is dying which reminds me of the feeling when I am stressed. She reflects on the fact that she survived that and that it is comforting to know she will survive that feeling again. I get the vibe that the author appreciates that experience and reflects on it often because it was comforting to her, she thinks of it fondly and it is a core memory for her. Readers can take away that scary things will pass, and we can learn from the experiences we have.
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