by: Sheryl Luna
Lowering Your Standards for Food Stamps
Words fall out of my coat pocket,
soak in bleach water. I touch everyone’s
dirty dollars. Maslow’s got everything on me.
Fourteen hours on my feet. No breaks.
No smokes or lunch. Blank-eyed movements:
trash bags, coffee burner, fingers numb.
I am hourly protestations and false smiles.
The clock clicks its slow slowing.
Faces blur in a stream of hurried soccer games,
sunlight, and church certainty. I have no
poem to carry, no material illusions.
Cola spilled on hands, so sticky fingered,
I’m far from poems. I’d write of politicians,
refineries, and a border’s barbed wire,
but I am unlearning America’s languages
with a mop. In a summer-hot red
polyester top, I sell lotto tickets. Cars wait for gas
billowing black. Killing time has new meaning.
A jackhammer breaks apart a life. The slow globe
spirals, and at night black space has me dizzy.
Visionaries off their meds and wacked out
meth heads sing to me. A panicky fear of robbery
and humiliation drips with my sweat.
Words some say are weeping twilight and sunrise.
I am drawn to dramas, the couple arguing, the man
headbutting his wife in the parking lot.
911: no metered aubade, and nobody but
myself to blame.
This poem originally appeared in the 2014 April issue of Poetry Magazine.
Analysis:
Contrary to the title of the piece, the poem is not about "lowering your standards," but not being able to raise your standards due to your current situation. The speaker knows her struggle and witnesses/helps those everyday who do not have her same struggles, or realize her struggles. Alliteration is found throughout the poem that emphasizes the emotions of the speaker. ex) dirty dollars.
The speaker is also envious of those who live an "easy" life. This is shown through her use of language as she observes the seemingly normal people around her, "I sell lotto tickets. Cars wait for gas." She knows that their lives have substance while hers is wasted working "fourteen hours on my feet."
The speaker also says "I am unlearning America's languages with a mop." This symbolizes that she possibly had the "american dream" in mind and she sees herself losing that opportunity with everyday that she spends working at the gas station.
Lastly, the speaker says "I'm far from poems," which shows that she is not in a place that she wants to be.
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ReplyDeletein the poem "Lowering your Standards for Food Stamps" by Sheryl Luna the author uses literary devices such as diction, imagery, and sound to make their point on food stamps and how they effect peoples lives. The diction used in this poem, "unlearning" and "Maslow" show the slow process in which people are trying to make their lives better. "humiliation drips with my sweat" this imagery shows how humiliating it is to have to use food stamps and that people don't like using them. "The clock clicks its slow slowing" this sound indicates how slow people are in trying to improve.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem Sheryl Luna, uses poetic devices such as diction, repitions, and alliteration to explore the particular situation in which the average american worker is faced with day after day. Her diction used in this poem, "unlearning" and "Maslow" empahsize how slow moving progress can be for an american worker on the corporate ladder. "Unlearning" is used as a way to emphasize how slowly they are losing the desire for wealth or knowledge. Repition is used as well especially seen in the opening lines "No breaks. No smokes or lunch." and the repeated listing of how slowly the day is dragging along throughout the poem. We can see alliteration used throughout the poem as well through "dirty dollars" to emphasize the disgust and yet they still spend hours working just to get them. Another example is when Luna says " slow slowing" to again emphasize how slow moving progress can be in this situation and the misery those average american workers who get no government help, like food stamps, have to struggle daily and those poetic techniques allow her to fully expres and explore that situation.
ReplyDeleteThis poem can somewhat be seen as a critique of our modern culture. The speaker works at a gas station and presents his or her perspective in a way that portrays the struggle of not only working in a gas station, but living a lower class lifestyle. The people that he is exposed to on a daily basis are described as drug users, wife beaters, and their money is described as "dirty", implying that they earned it through illegal and/or immoral means. The author does not only portray the miserable life of one individual, but an entire class of people.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem by Sheryl Luna, alliteration, extended metaphor, and snapshots are used to describe the life of this worker and how it is difficult to achieve the American Dream. From the descriptions that the poet presents, it seems as if the speaker is working at a gas station. One example of alliteration is "dirty dollars." The speaker has to touch everyone's nasty money for fourteen hours. "The clock clicks it's slow slowing," another example of alliteration, further supports the idea of her job at a gas station. Not many people would choose to work at a place where everyone's dirty money is handled. The speaker does not sound excited either, showing that the American Dream is not easily achieved. Luna also uses extended metaphor by referring to Maslow's hierarchy of needs in the first few lines. Maslow's theory explains the idea that people only need the basic things in life (water, food, air) to survive. This shows that the American Dream does not necessarily need to be achieved since money is not a need. Luna also uses anaphora in her poem. She uses "No breaks. No smokes," and the constant use of "I am" or "I'm" to begin sentences. This puts the reader into the shoes of the speaker to help visualize te life that she is living.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Lowering Your Standards for Food Stamps" the poet, Sheryl Luna uses sensory details and personification to convey the speakers bitter attitude towards her work place.
ReplyDeleteIn "Lowering Your Standards for Food Stamps", Luna uses sensory details to convey the speakers bitter attitude toward her work place through the quote "Faces blur in a stream of hurried soccer games, sunlight and church certainty." The speaker is not happy with where she is in life. She hates that she is poor and does not have the privileges that the people that she serve food to do. She wishes that she was on the other side of the counter, with the people that come in from soccer games.
Luna also uses personification to how the speakers bitter attitude toward her environment through the quote "Words some say are weeping twilight and sunrise" This shows the speakers day in and day out working at the diner. Her days just run together and nothing exciting happens in her life. She wants something great and her life to be great. Words do not actually weep, but she does.
The author of this poem describes a poor man's life who doesn't like the things he sees around him. He witnesses drug abuse, gambling, and violent crimes that describes the lives of lower-class people. The poet describes people in his class as "wacked out" and "meth heads." Just by the harsh language we see here you can tell the speaker doesn't like the kind of people he has to be around. Though you may have some bad people in a class, doesn't mean everybody is bad. Some just may be trapped, looking for a way out of poverty and food stamps- a life they've always known. The speakers negative attitude clearly conveys his disgust in his job where he witnesses men abusing their wives and gamblers that waste their money away.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Lowering Your Standards for Food Stamps, Luna used different poetic devices to explore a particular situation in depth. The situation is a person working at has job, and witnessing all of the problems lower class citizens go through. An example of imagery is "Faces blur in a stream of hurried soccer games." This shows that the narrator sees a lot a people in a single day, and all of them seem to blend together because of how similar situations each one of them are in. The poem also uses alliteration throughout the poem, with "dirty dollars" as just one example. These show how the author feels the low class people. These poetic devices show that the author believes that there are a lot of low class citizens in the world, and feels that there are so many because some people lower their standards to reap the benefits, hence the title. In reality, everyone should trying the raise their standards so they can not only make their life better, but also the people around them.
ReplyDeleten the poem "Lowering Your Standards" Sheryl Luna uses techniques such as imagery and alliteration to describe her current situation of being stuck by the bars of social standing.
ReplyDeleteSheryl uses imagery to describe her current job "fourteen hours on my feet. No breaks no smokes or lunch. blank-eyed moments." Here she describes the hardship she is forced to endure day after day. This image gives the reader a sense if prolonging a difficult task. By saying no smokes the author is emphasizing that no one gets special treatment where as if it were a waiter or waitress they would be aloud to take a fifteen minute smoke break. Another impactful image talks about how the job is disorienting. "A jackhammer breaks a part a life.the slow globe spirals, and at night black space has me dizzy." This quote represents the power poverty in her current situation holds over her. Breaking her soul and spirit and most importantly her hope to ever change social standing.
Sheryl Luna also uses alliteration to describe her current situation "I'd write of politicians, refineries, and a borders barbed wire." This quote shows the readers wish to be a writer and how if she had the chance she would write about the beauty in the simplest things such as barbed wire . This quote using a borders barbed wire" also is relevant in that movement between social classes is so hard that it's almost as if there were a border of barbed wire separating them, and ever time one tried or moved they would get injured by the barbed wire.
Sheryl Luna uses alliteration and imagery to describe and evoke how the narrator feels about her situation in poverty and even her broken dream to once push the limits and break through the social boundaries.