Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"An Anointing" by Thylias Moss delves into the intimate and complex friendship between the speaker and Molly, painting a picture of two girls who have transcended societal norms and rules to create their own universe of understanding. Moss crafts a narrative that is both poignant and provocative, touching on themes of friendship, defiance, and the fluidity of identity.

The poem opens with a comparison between the rituals of friendship among boys and girls, a juxtaposition that immediately questions societal constructs. Boys "slash their fingers to become brothers," a traditional, almost tribal, bonding ritual fraught with physical pain. In contrast, girls trade their "Kotex," a signifier of womanhood and also a taboo topic, yet something essentially shared.

The friendship of the narrator and Molly is not tied to societal expectations or temporal markers; they "never remember each other's birthdays. On pur-pose." This voluntary forgetting is a defiance against scorekeeping, against living life measured by numbers, be it time or achievement. The girls don't "wear watches" and have "20/20 vision," symbolizing their clarity of perspective untainted by the pressures of society.

Their behaviors, from drinking shampoo to mimicking toasts with specimen cups, project an image of two beings completely comfortable in their oddities and free from judgment. They have created a space where the "urge" can be explored but left "untouched," a place of curiosity but also of restraint. They stand on the precipice of change - being in the "eighth grade for good" - and yet deliberately decide not to "cross the street," fearing the irreversible nature of adulthood.

The poem is rife with defiance against categorization and standardization. They do not "double date," "multiply anything," and reject traditional idiomatic phrases like "going ape" or "going bananas." Their lives are lived in the margins of the conventional, but they find meaning, love, and identity in those margins.

The visceral experiences that bind them, from "wiping each other's asses with ferns" to making "emergency tampons of our fingers," move beyond the boundaries of polite society and delve into a primal, almost elemental, form of closeness. The acts are not grotesque but sanctifying; they are rituals of intimacy, as indicated in the title "An Anointing."

The poem culminates in a metaphoric birth, a "katabatic action" where Molly becomes both child and mother, breaking water "in me like an anointing." This blending of roles and identities furthers the theme of fluidity, emphasizing that their friendship is not fixed but a living, evolving entity.

In terms of structure, the poem employs a free verse form, allowing the narrative to unfold naturally. The language is colloquial, filled with contractions and slang, which adds authenticity to the voice.

"An Anointing" is a fascinating exploration of the depth and complexity that friendships can achieve when freed from societal norms and expectations. It's a tale of two individuals living authentically, walking a unique path through a world that often seeks to label and define. Moss celebrates the irreverence, the intimacy, and the defiance that come from such an extraordinary bond, challenging the reader to consider the constraints we accept and those we have the courage to defy.

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