Parched — Summary

Dave BontaRomantic

water me I may go dry without sin

how do I find a person to lose my ice with

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The speaker is dry, and says so in a plea: "water me." It sounds like a request you'd make of a gardener, which makes the speaker seem both plant and person, needing care but too exposed to ask for it any other way. The next line, "I may go dry / without sin," is stranger. It suggests that drying up is a kind of innocence, or that nothing will be blamed on anyone if the speaker simply withers. There's a flat, tired honesty in that.

The second stanza turns from thirst to cold. Ice is what the speaker wants to lose, and not alone: they need "a person to lose / my ice with." Melting becomes something shared, like thawing out in someone's company. The question "how do I find" sounds genuinely unsure, even a little helpless.

The mood is quiet and lonely, but not hopeless. The speaker is guarded and frozen, yet still wants to be reached. Judging by the imagery, the poem is about longing for closeness and not knowing how to begin.

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