Getting Out

I feel like the poem Getting Out by Cleopatra Mathis is about a couple that went through a divorce. At the beginning of the story, I think that it talks about the time that they were together, maybe the last year of their marriage. It says, "that year we hardly slept, waking like inmates who beat the walls" (Mathis, 1). The diction used in this line makes compares their marriage to being a prisoner in a prison. As the poem goes on, the reader learns that there were many problems within the marriage while they were still together. For example, it talks about them arguing saying, "finally locked into blame, we paced that short hall, heaving words like furniture" (Mathis, 13). As the poem continues, the reader learns that he two people in the relationship still have feelings for each other. The fact that he still has pictures of the two of them leads to the idea that there is something between them. They also still write each other an annual letter. In the letter, its almost like they are still trying to convince each other that they did the right thing by getting a divorce. "And in the yearly letter, you're sure to say you're happy now" (Mathis, 19). It seems like there were just subtle differences that led to the two of them getting divorced, but even though their divorced, they still love each other.