Hear me: sometimes thunder is just thunder.
-- Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: The opening line immediately commands the reader's attention with the imperative to listen to the speaker. The phrase "hear me" is not used in everyday speech, giving the line a formal feeling. However, the tension is diffused when the speaker states that "sometimes thunder is just thunder." Thunder, a grand physical phenomenon, does not represent anything more than what it is.

Leaves fall / from the trees because the days are getting shorter, / by which I mean not the days we have left.
-- Speaker (Lines 2-4)

Importance: In poetry, figurative devices such as metaphors and symbolism are used to increase the reader's excitement by evoking strong and creative images. But here, the speaker states that falling leaves have a physical explanation, and don't represent anything further. Winter often symbolizes sleep, barrenness, and death, but the speaker clarifies that she is not referring to this symbolic resonance.

but the...
-- Speaker (Lines 5-6)