Woman Unborn

I found Anna Swir's poem "Woman Unborn" very interesting. The main idea of the poem is the idea of "minus life". When she says this, she means the time before she was born. In the poem she is traveling back in time. When I first saw the term "minus life" I immediately took it as an abstract idea that contrasts with reality. The second and third stanzas of the poem portray the poem quite well. As she is traveling back in time, before her existence, she notices "nonexistence so much resembles immortality." I found this line very striking. Of course, immortality refers to a living human that cannot die, and she compares this person to nonexistence, something that never was. I think she compares these two to make that point of how difficult life really is. At times we say, "I wish I had never existed!" as little kids often do while throwing a tantrum. Hardly ever do we wish for immortality, because the toils are foil eventually catch up with us. The last line really ties in this idea, "As trite as the death of my existence would have been had I really been born."