[Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash]
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A decade ago, I came across a couplet shared by one of my favourite poetry blogs (now deactivated by its owner):
“After the Argument” by Steve Kronen
Through the window by the bookcase
His bobbing hat above the bouquets
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I liked it so much that I often copied it out in my notebook, because it felt like a cathartic way of processing endings to my personal relationships. After all these years, it’s still one of my favourites. I think it’s so clever in its less-is-more approach. It was, however, many years before I realised it rhymed perfectly.
I can really feel the pang here of watching someone choose to walk away when we’re both at an impasse. He’s not working things out with her. He has given up. The woman’s narration juxtaposes the static nature of her bookcase and flowers against the activity of the outside landscape, where the man’s hat gradually disappears out of sight. Her dissociative voice makes it feel as though, just like she’s watching him through a window, I’m looking in through a window and watching her being left.
I also wondered about the significance of the bouquets here. I like to think the flowers he is now walking past were the very same ones he had given her in the past during happier times. His sweet gesture from the past adds another layer to the contrast between how things were and how they are now.
Lastly, the deliberate ambiguity of whether it’s just a temporary space for reflection or a permanent ending adds to the gravity of those few words. When I try to recall poems describing the aftermath of a fight, I tend to think of flowery or raw descriptions of anger, sadness, and hurt. There’s none of that here. I’m impressed by how these two short lines can always leave me feeling so gutted, particularly now that I’m in the wake of an argument where it appears that reconciliation is no longer on the table.