Classifieds Two — Summary

Looking for the woman from my dream last night. Her eyes were the Cuyahoga River, and her touch was the first drop of unfrozen rain to fall on your shoulder in the beginning of Spring.

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The title borrows the language of the classified ads, those short notices where people look for a lost item, a roommate, a date. Here the speaker is looking for someone who exists only in a dream. That's a funny, slightly lonely idea, and the poem plays it straight, as if a newspaper might actually help.

The two comparisons carry the feeling. Her eyes are the Cuyahoga River, a real, specific place, which makes her seem both vast and moving, something you could look into and get carried off by. Her touch is the first drop of unfrozen rain at the start of spring, a small, surprising moment that signals winter is ending. The poem suggests the speaker has been cold or stuck, and this woman felt like relief.

The mood is tender and wistful, with a touch of longing. The speaker doesn't sound desperate so much as hopeful, holding on to a feeling too good to let fade.

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