"Teach Us to Number Our Days"

In the old neighborhood, each funeral parlor   

is more elaborate than the last.

The alleys smell of cops, pistols bumping their thighs,   

each chamber steeled with a slim blue bullet.

Low-rent balconies stacked to the sky.   

A boy plays tic-tac-toe on a moon   

crossed by TV antennae, dreams

he has swallowed a blue bean.

It takes root in his gut, sprouts

and twines upward, the vines curling   

around the sockets and locking them shut.

And this sky, knotting like a dark tie?

The patroller, disinterested, holds all the beans.

August. The mums nod past, each a prickly heart on a sleeve.

This poem was confusing for me, but to be honest, I liked the way it sounded when it was read and I was interested in gaining a better understanding of it. I have interpreted it as a poem that focuses on identity - the boy, innocent and ignorant of society's harsh reality is depicted after the image of the cops, whose power is predetermined ("holds all the beans"). Dove juxtaposes each character in their own separate scene. The cops patrol the dark alleys which linger with the scent of their bullets, a sign that the neighborhood is poor and that dreams rarely become reality for those who inhabit the "low-rent balconies stacked to the sky"(5). The boy, unaware of these restrictions(the barriers he will face, his powerlessness in such a society, the crime rate, as indicated by the "funeral parlor") is sitting blissfully in his innocence, dreaming dreams that, sadly, will soon be shattered. The moon seems to symbolize a brighter future to which the young boy aspires, and the tic tac toe game may be a symbol for the uncertainty he will soon face as he plays with this unpredicatable future. I am unsure of what Dove was hinting at by the mention of the dreams being "crossed by TV antennae", but perhaps she meant to indicate that the media is infecting his young mind, and crossing into his future. I think what I struggled with most in this poem was the last line. Dove writes, "August. The mums nod past, each a prickly heart on a sleeve". She might have chosen August because it is the last month before the Fall begins, which could be interpreted to mean the boy is headed for the dark and dreary winter, or more simply, a future that will hit him coldly. The mums which "nod past", could then symbolize the passing moment of bliss, which will soon be out-lived. Each moment the boy lives must be savored, because soon he could be headed for a different sky than the one he dreams of with the bright moon - a sky "knotting like a dark tie"(a darkening future).

Devices:

Open Form - There is no definite rhyme pattern or meter in this poem -  perhaps this only enhances the unpredicatale and ever-changing world of the boy, and life?

Quatrain - The first three stanzas are quatrains; oddly, this poem looks as if it is following the form of a sonnet, but then adds an additional line which lies alone at the end. This, with the obvious lack of rhyme and a definite rhythm, does not qualify the poem as a sonnet. I found it interesting that it almost took that form, however.
Hyperbole - "balconies stacked to the sky" (5)