Monster
The dominant if not defining imagery throughout the book is that which presents the titular drug as a monster that addicts can expect to fight against their entire life. This is a novel written in verse and so descriptions of this beast are often ironically conveyed through poetry. “The monster rose up hard then, / hard in her eyes, / She looked like an animal, crazy mad.” This specific use of monster imagery—and it is just one of many—is a portrayal of how it can literally take over an addict’s body. It is the monster—the drug—that is responsible for the look of a mad animal out of control.
Eyes
After a long estrangement, the narrator sees her father for the first time since she was a young girl. “Peculiar eyes, blue-speckled / green like extravagant eggs, / met my own pale aquamarine.” The use of imagery is striking here in its description of the color of eyes that is shared but marked by differences in the details. The description leaves the reader unstable. Aquamarine is a mixture of blue and green and it is hard to get a hold on exactly which of those two colors dominates the father’s eyes. This instability reflects the narrator’s own emotional uncertainty during the initial awkward moments of this reunion.
Home
Home for the narrator is Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Imagery is used to describe the city from high above. She sees “a bayou of cement, asphalt shingles, tinted panes, fake wood siding, / and lingering in the distance, an ocean of sage-embroidered / playa.” This is a description of the suburban experience. It comes right after an imagery-laden description of the casino center of the city. This use of imagery presents a stark divide between the neon and glass and money that fuels dreams of overnight riches and the depressingly mundane homogeneity of real life for the city’s residents.
Jealousy
The narrator writes of being discovered sharing the space with a guy when the guy’s girlfriend walks in. “I swear I saw her claws / spring out. I froze, prey” and then “She had claimed her territory. / I decided to let the wildcats / play, uninterrupted.” The imagery here is clear enough. Jealousy has inflamed the girlfriend. She has become territorial and does not try to hide the fact that the narrator has dangerously introduced into that arena.
