"Getting Out" by Cleopatra Mathis

"Getting Out" was a poem about the trials and tribulations of a failed marriage. Since this is such a prevalent issue in today's world, I found the poem easy to identify with as a reader. As the speaker relived the experiences of her diminishing marriage, the language and tone of the piece described the range of emotions she was feeling at the same time. At one point, her anger was apparent when she mentioned how her and her husband "paced the short hall, heaving words like furniture". To me, that was a powerful statement because it showed that the extent of their verbal arguments had reached its peak. However, at another point, the tone took on a more hopeless feeling. "Every night another refusal, the silent work of tightening the heart. Exhausted, we gave up..." And yet, in the last stanza the speaker recalls how they cried on the final day of their marriage when they made the divorce final. The ending of the poem evokes a sense of sadness as well as stirring sympathy for the man and woman as they struggle to leave one another behind. The fact that they could not let go of each others' hands immediately shows that they tried desperately to make their marriage work but in the end realized that love was no longer enough. Even though they still cared for one another, they accepted that the best decision was to leave before the situation grew any worse. The poem was sort of sad overall, but I thought that it was a good demonstration of some of the conflicts that individuals encounter when facing the prospect of divorce.