Julia Alvarez

It seems like she's looking.

Right, right.

To stop looking the right way, the Mrs. Lawrence way of looking.

And so when we get to that last stanza and that very quiet, it's not even a scold, you'll hear the sigh of it.

I mean, suddenly Judy is in the third person.

She's been kind of removed from being the one that was assigned the duty that she takes very seriously.

She stands guard.

You can see her perking up with that responsibility.

And yet, so the end is kind of, it feels, when you get to it, the way she must have felt at failing this responsibility.

There's also the adult perspective, right?

So we see that it's crushed her, that last line.

So what I like about it is that the tone is fluid and textured.

and yet the details are the ones that are landing it for me.

Yeah, you know, that's wonderful.

Thanks for pointing out that there's that fluidity in how the lines move into the next, you know, flow into the next.

In that second stanza especially, but in that last stanza, it is four blunt statements.

Everything has stopped.

But, you know, then you go back and you read it, as I did, reread it and read it since I knew I'd be talking about it.

And you're getting these little whiffs of, hmm.

Because you're reading it in the now perspective of an adult reader, maybe.