Page 435 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

or, Feel like crap since my mastectomy, 5
or, Picked last for the team in boy’s P.E.

You didn’t take rude comments personally

from Laid off after twelve years at G.E.

You saw somebody trip, you didn’t smirk.

You didn’t bitch about the bitch at work 10

or honk a guy for driving like a jerk.
You knew there was some kind of story there.

You always know some kind of story’s there.

Thinking about the Poem

1. The first six lines of the poem introduce the town and the “big
name tags.” What kinds of information do the tags contain?

What effect would that information most likely have on a person

who read it?

2. Lines 7–11 mention rude behaviors. Is there an implied cause

for those behaviors? How do the townspeople react to those
behaviors, and why?

3. What do the two last lines suggest about the reasons for

people’s behavior? What might be the effect if we all wore

name tags like the ones described?