Sinking Case

Fight or flight? Live or die? Sink or swim? There are crucial moments in a person's life where she must make a character-defining decision. In the epoem, "Sinking", by Ingrid Ankerson, choosing to wash dishes is a metaphor for that "sink or swim" decision. In "Sinking", with its ominous visuals and sounds, the speaker, reflecting on being unable to handle the pressures of her life, decides to take on life's obstacles rather than give up.

The epoem is a reflection on being discovered for failing to keep up with the demands of life. "Sinking" begins with the image of a person, before washing the dishes, pressing "both hands to the calm basin of the sink", which allows her to remove herself from her chaotic word and simply think (Ankerson). This triggers a memory of her childhood when she thought she could swim, when actually her arms just supported her in the "shallow waves of the lake" (Ankerson). Later her mother demonstrates how to swim, and the speaker realizes that what she was doing was not swimming (Ankerson). The speaker fears that now, in her adult life, someone is going to "find that you don't know how to swim", meaning someone will prove she is living her life the wrong way or cannot handle the stress of life.

The last line of the poem, "you will begin with a knife", leaves the reader wondering if the speaker will sink, by committing suicide, or swim, by washing a knife (Ankerson). The speaker will "swim" and cope with the burdens of her life. The speaker remembers her mother teaching her to swim, which could give the speaker hope that there are always people willing to help, even in dark times (Ankerson). The speaker resolves at the end to "stretch your arms in front of you", meaning she has decided to persevere despite being overwhelmed (Ankerson). She "will do what you know"; she is going to start taking on tasks one at a time, eventually making her life manageable (Ankerson).

The epoem makes the reader feel they are sinking in metaphorical sense with its word and in the literal sense with its visuals and sounds. The background during the entire poem is water, which is moving upwards, giving the illusion that the reader is sinking (Ankerson). The words fade in and out and the music in the background is low, adding to the dark tone of the poem (Ankerson). Some lines fade out quickly, while others such as "You don't know how to swim", linger because the words carry more meaning (Ankerson).

"Sinking" contemplates whether someone will discover how overwhelmed the speaker is feeling, but she decides to rise to the challenges of her adult life, despite the dark tone of her thoughts further emphasized by its visuals and sounds. Everyone has gone or will go through dark times in their lives, and in the end they have to make a choice like the speaker, either