A speaker mourning in a graveyard receives a strange offer: she can give up her own life to bring back any one person, but only one. The dead seem to wait nearby as she cleans their graves. She then weighs the candidates, speaking of them as Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, lovers, and children. Each relationship is tangled. The father already seems pitiable, the mother once controlled the speaker, the brother’s return would serve an empire the speaker questions, the sister is partly ignored, the lovers did not wait, and the children make promises they will not keep. The mood is somber but not sentimental; it feels wary and unresolved. Instead of rushing toward sacrifice, the speaker measures her attachments and finds none clear enough to be worth her life. The poem ends still inside that dilemma: loss is real, but choosing is impossible.
Choose — Summary
They step aside letting me clean their graves There is a pagoda in the garden where they wait talking as I mourn
I hear a voice granting me this That I can give up my life for anyone I wish brought back to life But only one
Father of sacrifice needs no help to draw my pity That is piteous
Mother of passion reigned over me I resent that
Brother of empire I would re-instate But why
Sister of sullenness I feel for And ignore
Lovers of the moment I cannot deny But they did not wait for me
Children of untold stories make the most promises They will not fulfill