Be careful with that match!
The end of the poem's first stanza consists of this warning: because the filling station contains so much oil, it is implied, matches would pose a danger. It is unclear whether the speaker is uttering these words directly or quoting somebody else, but, regardless, because the sentence is syntactically a second-person directive, the reader feels that they are being addressed and even scolded. The speaker begins the poem, in other words, in a defensive stance, determined to keep the physical reality of the filling station at bay and determined to control their surroundings. Only after forgoing that control and becoming open to their surroundings will the speaker gain insight into the dynamics of the filling station.
and greasy sons assist him (it’s a family filling station), all quite thoroughly dirty.
Here, the speaker's explanation that the station is owned by a family is sandwiched between two other statements as a parenthetical. These surrounding statements contain a degree of judgment, mostly centered on the "greasy" and "dirty" qualities of the filling station and the family running it. Familial love will eventually come to the fore, but here the speaker brushes it aside as unimportant beside these other, less desirable characteristics. By placing a reference to family in its own separate line and containing it within parentheses, allowing it to disrupt the surrounding sentence, Bishop reveals that her speaker has not been able to reconcile the dirtiness of the filling station with the humanity of the people maintaining it.
Why the extraneous plant? Why the taboret? Why, oh why, the doily?
While the speaker begins the poem in a state of defensiveness, they become increasingly curious about the lives of the family at the filling station. This curiosity reaches its peak in these three questions. These questions, repeated and unbashful requests to understand the filling station and its denizens, are juxtaposed syntactically and tonally with the earlier exclaimed warning to be careful with matches. Here, commands give way to questions. The speaker's previous attempts to gain control disappear, and are replaced by this probing mode. It is vulnerable and almost lamenting, with the speaker looking outward for more information, rather than attempting to repel the outside world.
so that they softly say: esso—so—so—so
In the final lines of this poem, the unremarkable elements of the filling station are transmuted into the trappings of comfort and love. The word "esso," a brand name for the oil company Exxonmobil, is transformed by repetition and abbreviation into a single incantatory syllable. Through sibilant S sounds in both that syllable and in the previous lines, Bishop creates a feeling of mystery, softness, and quiet. Thus she evokes the act of hushing, comforting, and even soothing with a lullaby or other type of music. In doing so, she recalls other acts of love, not immediately visible to the speaker yet suggested by the presence of carefully maintained material comforts at the filling station.
