Analysis of As if You Didn’t Exist at All



How scary it must be to go missing.
Perhaps they thought she wandered away
But surely she’ll be back before an hour.

Maybe she got lost.
Maybe she’ll be back soon?
Instead of being dragged off kicking while the sun was still shining
Yet not a head turns,

She’ll be back soon.
Wet tears streaming down wide white eyes
Not a feather falls for her plight
Mouth hoarse from howling into the ignorant night.

Wet tears streaming down wide white eyes
With only the moon as a witness
Wails swallowed by the night
Buried in the detritus and rain-soaked forest floor

With the moon as my witness, Hail Mary.
Baptize the bloody and broken in the pale moonlight
Buried in the detritus and rain-soaked forest floor
Devoured by rows of shark-toothed spruce trees.

Markings in time
Out of the silent spruce forest--
Maybe she’ll come back soon.


Scheme axx xbax bCdd CxdE xdEx xxb
Poetic Form
Metre 1101111110 011111001 11011101110 10111 101111 0111011101011110 11011 1111 11101111 10101101 111100101001 11101111 110011010 110101 1000010011101 1011110110 010100100011 1000010011101 0101111111 1001 11010110 101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 841
Words 161
Sentences 9
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 110
Words per stanza (avg) 25

About this poem

Government officers came to my class one day talking about what they did I don't remember what exactly they said, but I do remember the feeling I got when the person came up to talk about helping to find missing indigenous people. When I got home I couldn't stop crying from the feeling.

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Written on November 01, 2021

Submitted by Palomamckee on August 26, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
51

Paloma McKee

Grew up moving around and always liked to scribble down the thoughts that came into my head. more…

All Paloma McKee poems | Paloma McKee Books

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    "As if You Didn’t Exist at All" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/135588/as-if-you-didn%E2%80%99t-exist-at-all>.

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