where the grass grows uphill
-- Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: This line incorporates images from popular aphorisms. “Grass” is often associated with idealism and envy: “the grass is greener”; “uphill” is generally associated with challenges and obstacles, referred to as “uphill battles”. The line suggests a sense of aspiration and struggle, reflecting the struggles of the people who lived there.

moving closer to its own truth
-- Speaker (Line 7)

Importance: This line conveys a subjectivity around the idea of truth: that truth is not absolute, but shaped by the individual. The poem suggests that this truth is not one discovered, but created to serve a specific purpose. In this instance, there is no truth at all — only the manufactured messages of those in power.

buy it, sell it, make it disappear
-- Speaker (Line 12)

Importance: This line uses parallel repetition to not only create a staccato rhythm, but to emphasize the decline of the speaker’s world. It uses ascending parallelism to convey...