Walking with Death in Life

“Highway 12, Just East of paradise, Idaho” by Robert Wrigley and “Reading the Obituary Page” by Linda Pastan are two poems that are similar to each other. Both poems narrate how death changes one’s life story in a minute of time. The poem “Highway 12, Just East of Paradise, Idaho” is a narration of how a doe dies and everything happens so quickly like a fast forward movie, reveling how, in a matter of minutes, life is very fragile. However, the narrator, who experiences this tragic accident, still has the vivid images in his mind of this tragic event where he takes the life of an indefensible doe. Similarly, in “Reading the Obituary Page,” this poem reveals that, in a matter of minutes, this music stops and the one who does not find a chair is hanging between life and death. These two poems suggest that death is part of everyone’s life, that each day that one lives is one day less, and that everyone’s future is unknown.

Both poems reveal that life can end in a matter of seconds.  In “Highway 12, Just East of Paradise, Idaho,” the narrator of this poem relates “the instant the truck hit her” (2). The word the narrator uses to capture the reader’s attention is “the instant” which reveals that life can change in a second. Also, suggest that life is uncertain and when death arrives, the ones who die are left in the past, but for the ones that are alive their life continues. For example, the life of the doe was left and the narrator continues on his way. Similarly, in “Reading the Obituary Page,” for the ones that were left without a chair the game ends, but for the ones that still have chairs the game continues. It is how life in reality is, and one personal example that I can share with the narrator of “Highway 12, Just East of Paradise, Idaho.” Is that I know the feeling of killing an innocent animal. One time, I was driving to college and I was passing under the freeway, when I meet an adorable white dove that crashed into my windshield. I continued my way and left her in the past, but I still remember, and keep thinking what the story would be if I was driving a minute earlier or a minute later before or after the crash. Certainly the story would be different.

I chose to write this blog about the poem of “Highway 12, Just East of Paradise, Idaho” because it reminds me of the tragic accident that I experienced with the dove. I chose to compare it with the poem of “Reading the Obituary Page” because I enjoyed playing the musical game when I was little, without knowing that musical chairs is a game that is training its players about life and death. As a result, each day people are playing these games without realizing that life is ending and that each minute that passes is a minute less in their lives.