Touch by Hugh Lewin- Analysis and summary
When I get out
I’m going to ask someone
to touch me
very gently please
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again
how life feels.
I’ve not been touched
for seven years
for seven years
I’ve been untouched
out of touch
and I’ve learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.
Untouched – not quite
I can count the tings
that have touched me
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists
beating beating
till I remember
screaming
, Don’t touch me
please don’t touch me.
Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day
patting paws, searching
– arms up, shoes off
legs apart –
prodding paws, systematic
heavy, indifferent
probing away
all privacy.
I don’t want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched
again
and to touch,
I want to feel alive
again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.
Stanza 1
"When I get out": This line immediately establishes a
sense of confinement and longing for freedom.
When I get out
I’m going to ask someone
to touch me
very gently please
and slowly,
touch me
I want
to learn again
how life feels.
I’ve not been touched
for seven years
for seven years
I’ve been untouched
out of touch
and I’ve learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.
Untouched – not quite
I can count the tings
that have touched me
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists
beating beating
till I remember
screaming
, Don’t touch me
please don’t touch me.
Two: paws
The first four years of paws
every day
patting paws, searching
– arms up, shoes off
legs apart –
prodding paws, systematic
heavy, indifferent
probing away
all privacy.
I don’t want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched
again
and to touch,
I want to feel alive
again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.
Stanza 1
"When I get out": This line immediately establishes a
sense of confinement and longing for freedom.
