adolescence

adolescence-I

tells the story of a group of girls on grandma's porch. They sit around and talk, and are amazed with the simplest things. They find the beauty of the world. Like fireflies whirring nearby and the pinging of street-lamps. The main theme of adolescence though is love, and Linda describes their innocence. "a boys lips are soft as soft as baby's skin" she is idolized for her knowledge, she is above the other girls for she has done what none of them have, she has kissed a boy.

Adolescence II
This is probably the first really negative experience she has with men, she is either pregnant at this point (baby-breasts) or so just becoming a woman. She describes being in the bathroom as they come "seal men" with eyes as round as dinner plates and eylashes like sharpened tines. They are described as hungry tines are forks. With the sent of licorice. I believe they are drunk, for one says can you feel it yet? When they leave patting their bodies they are possibly showing their drunkeness, as they need to touch things. Or perhaps they have raped her. That was my first impresssion. They leave.

Adolescence III here she is undoubtedly pregnant, she swells out llike atomato.The men in her life have gone and left her alone with her mother to work in the fields.
Adolescence could be the men in a girls life, her life before men, her life during it, and her life after they have left her. Or it could be scene as her maturing from child to teen to adult. Either way the poem is about the loss of adolescence and the dissillusionment with the world which comes with it.