Love is a Battlefield

"That year we hardly slept, waking like inmates
who beat the walls..."
("Getting Out" - Cleopatra Mathis)

This poem creates a shift in tone that explains the before and after of a divorce.  Before the divorce occurred, the speaker uses the pronoun "we" in order to explain how the two people acted as a unit.  In the quote above, the couple is described using "we"; however, the marriage has made the two people "inmates."  This word has a pretty negative connotation because it connects with prison.  In this context, the couple feels as if they are inmates because they are slaves to their own marriage.  The speaker is trying to show how they are trapped because they care about each other, but they are also miserable because of all the problems the marriage has caused.  Later in the poem, a shift in pronouns occurs.  Instead of the pronoun "we," the pronoun "you" is used to place blame on the speaker's former husband.  The speaker accuses the husband of trying "to pack up and go."  At the end of this accusation based stanza, the speaker refers to the pair as a unit once again.  I think this couple has major problems because they can only unite through arguing and problems.  It is interesting how they are only described as a unit after a major fight occurs.

Here is a song that relates to the poem in a way.  My dad would be so proud.