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The Numbing Ways of Life
Poetry - 256 Q4
My piece The Numbing Ways of Life originated from spring break in Vallarta. Vallarta is known for it’s beautiful beaches and it’s incredible night life activity, so obviously I wanted to explore the city. So me and my friends decided to go to this bar called La Vaquita and it was different. I enjoy going out and dancing until my feet hurt but this experience was completely different. It was a lot more aggressive and honestly dangerous. Most people had given up themselves to alcohol and other recreational activities. I had a great night, but that didn’t stop me from acknowledging what was going on. The risk of being in a horrible situation escalated along with the night.
Like most of my pieces it started of as a free write with little to no editing. It was just a single narrator describing her experience at a party. When it came to revising I noticed that there was nothing special about this piece, so to make it more interesting I decided to add a second voice. This conveyed the piece’s message more since the boy lacked humanity. The main change from this piece came from one of my editors who said to make more clear and concise statements regarding what was actually happening in the piece.
My favorite part of my piece is the double narration. It makes the story of the poem much more effective and real. I feel like it demonstrates what us, humans are capable of doing in order to get what we want. “We submerge/ Back into the music/ And the drinking/ And the numbing/ Ways of life./ But I know,/ Later will never come.” This is my favorite line because it works as a poem as well as prose. It’s easy to follow along and enjoy the content. On the other hand, this simplicity can be a little boring and not profound.