Analysis Of Tracy Bollinger's Poem 'Expiration Date'

Growing up can be very difficult, however there ways to make it easier on yourself. In the poem “Expiration Date”. Tracy Bollinger examines the steps a person to needs take in order to make growing up easier, but not necessarily more enjoyable. The speaker in the poem is informing people on how they should grow up. The speaker also provides a multitude of things that a person who is growing should and should not do. The speaker describes multiple ways to make life not more enjoyable but easier. Through this poem, Bollinger both bitterly and critically states how a person should grow up as well as what restraints they should put on themselves to make growing and their lives easier, but maybe not more enjoyable.
In the beginning of the poem in stanza I the speaker talks about things individuals should do in order to make their life and growing up easier. When the speaker says,”Train, the one good eye to stay awake”(1.3). The speaker means that people should try to make growing up simpler by doing small things that will benefit them later. In the second stanza the message that is conveyed by Bollinger is that a person needs to give up certain things to grow up.
Bollinger conveys this idea through an image an example of this would be when the speaker states,...Don’t catch yourself drooling in dream”(2.2). The speaker states that in order to grow up every person must give up daydreaming. In addition to this a person should also plan ahead when growing up much like Bollinger states in the third and fourth stanza.
In the poem, “Expiration Date”, in stanzas III-IV Bollinger connects the two stanzas using a similar message.
When Bollinger creates the correlation with these two stanzas she expresses that a person should do to plan ahead or watch out for when growing up. For example when Bollinger writes, “take advantage of gravity/And momentum looks good anyway”(4.2-3). Bollinger provides an example of something that people should take advantage of in order to make growing older that much easier. At the end of the poem in the final stanza Bollinger writes about how a person should finalize the act of growing up. When Bollinger writes, “Pretend you’re not regretful or stuck”(5.3). Bollinger essentially states that in order to finalize growing up people need to do things such as, fake that they are happy even if they
aren’t.
I truly admire the complexity and simplicity that the poem,”Expiration Date”, exhibits. The poem has a strong mix of physical and abstract. I can connect with the message of the poem. It is easy to agree with the idea that a person has to give up some things in order to grow up. While physical maturity may tell one story what actions tell about a person may be completely different that why this poem’s idea makes sense that some things need to be sacrificed. When Bollinger writes, “Try not to look at the young girls”(2.1). Bollinger basically says that people should just act their own age.
Bollinger’s analysis of what type of things must be given up and what things a person should do in order to grow up easier seems rather critical and bitter. These things that Bollinger believes people should give up while may seem enjoyable are things that need be given up in order for people grow up.