Evidently, they are seniors because they are “breathing their last breaths” (7). This is further proved by their “inability / to deal with today’s climate” (8-9), where climate can be interpreted as both the weather and society’s way of thinking. What is interesting is that they are not only unable but also unwilling to change as they “are comfortably aware of their inability” (8). The next four lines leave no room for uncertainty – these people have lived the greater part of their lives under communism, and they are reminiscing about those times. “The good old days before Christ” (10) refers to Marxist-Leninist atheism, which was propagated in Eastern Bloc countries. Тhis line has some additional meanings – it signifies a distant period in the past, identifies that period with laws and oppression, and characterizes the present with freedom and salvation. The remaining lines relate to the fixed low prices and the complete predictability of the centrally planned economy – “when sausage was cheap yogurt cost 11 cents / televisions could be had on credit and there was total confidence / in the days to come” (11-13). The language in this verse emphasizes the strong attachment of the protagonists to this past
Evidently, they are seniors because they are “breathing their last breaths” (7). This is further proved by their “inability / to deal with today’s climate” (8-9), where climate can be interpreted as both the weather and society’s way of thinking. What is interesting is that they are not only unable but also unwilling to change as they “are comfortably aware of their inability” (8). The next four lines leave no room for uncertainty – these people have lived the greater part of their lives under communism, and they are reminiscing about those times. “The good old days before Christ” (10) refers to Marxist-Leninist atheism, which was propagated in Eastern Bloc countries. Тhis line has some additional meanings – it signifies a distant period in the past, identifies that period with laws and oppression, and characterizes the present with freedom and salvation. The remaining lines relate to the fixed low prices and the complete predictability of the centrally planned economy – “when sausage was cheap yogurt cost 11 cents / televisions could be had on credit and there was total confidence / in the days to come” (11-13). The language in this verse emphasizes the strong attachment of the protagonists to this past