Analysis of "My backbone."



My backbone has been broken:
I can no longer stand straight.

If I stand a  bone pierces me,
If I bend beyond there.

I can no longer stand in the field of the eminent,
No one listens, not even trained teens.
They say my teeth are good on family grounds.

I have stepped on shame and shame has shamed me shamelessly,
Our fathers say the thing in between a man's leg
is not a plaything for children;
mine is like clay in the hands of these children.

If I beat them their parents throw phlegm at me.
A rag for the cooking pot does not complain of blackness.
Let me bear in silence the stones of the unsilent ones
While I wail and wait for the wheel of timid time to turn times.

If it turns against them they will know we are all tenants
In the hands of the landlord call misfortune.

I do not pray for this to happen
But timid time is turning times.


Scheme AX BX XXX BXAA BXXC XA AC
Poetic Form
Metre 111110 1111011 1110111 111011 11110100110100 111011011 11111111001 1111101111100 1010101001011 1101110 11110011110 11111101111 01101011101110 111010011011 111011011101111 11101111111110 0011011010 111111110 11011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 862
Words 190
Sentences 10
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 2
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 94
Words per stanza (avg) 24

About this poem

I wrote this poem after the death of a very supportive friend. It reminds me of him. It also reminds me of the unfair treatment I received after his death. To them, I am nothing since he was the back I leaned on.

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Written on September 17, 2022

Submitted by Kudietei on September 20, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

57 sec read
1

Kubor, Dietei Gimeon

I grew up in a riverine village called Lobia. I spent half of my childhood there. Today, I live in the state capital. I am single. I enjoy writing poetry and playing football once in a while. more…

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