Thanks for reading. Good question.

The form for the story, alternating grammatical persons, is taken from The Death Of Artemeio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes.

I wanted to show how perception of one situation, in this case a love affair, can be understood differently by two people. But I wanted to enhance that by showing the confusion is not just in the difference between the two people’s perception, but within their own understanding. I thought the alternating stories retold in first, second and third person point of views might be a way to emphasize that. So you experience the alienation of the two lovers and their internal confusions simultaneously. The conclusion is meant to show how where we end up (and what we accept) is often alien to what we think and what we want and the opposite of what we think we know.

The language is clearly surrealist (oxymoron) to emphasize the characters’ overwhelming alienation. It is sort of magical realism, another nod to Fuentes and his contemporaries.

This began as a poem and evolved into a (sort of) short story.

Most of what I just described was done unconsciously, not by following a template. I am mostly a poet and I do not plan poems. I just channel them, touch them up and let them fly.

Prose fiction is much harder for me. That’s probably why I don’t write more of it. I don’t like the rewriting that comes with it.

TeriJo helped me by reading and editing this. I never let editors touch my poems (except to point out proofreading errors), but with fiction, other eyes can really help.

This is the most I have ever tried to explain a piece of my own writing. I hope it helps, but remember authors are notoriously bad at it. Usually, the piece says more and better than the author can. :)