Oil (Motif)
The poem's speaker repeatedly notes the presence of oil at the filling station: on the clothes of the father and sons who run it, as well as on the furniture and more generally pervading the station. It even prompts the speaker to feel anxious about the presence of a lit match. This preoccupation reflects the speaker's broader feelings of alarm about the station. She finds it unpleasant and uncomfortable. As the poem progresses and the speaker begins to feel more generously towards the filling station and the family running it, her emphasis on the motif of oil lessens. By the poem's end, the motif returns in a subtle, transformed way: the speaker wonders if a caring individual oils (rather than waters) a begonia plant, and sees the rows of oil cans arranged around the station as another sign of that care.
Flowers (Motif)
Two floral objects appear in this work: a begonia plant and a pattern of embroidered daisies on a doily. Both of these flowers are part of the carefully curated, lovingly maintained domestic landscape of the filling station. They are associated with beauty, ornament, and comfort. The presence of these floral patterns and objects within the largely utilitarian space of the filling station humanizes the family running it, suggesting that they appreciate, and work to create, beauty. Moreover, the association of flowers with the natural world draws a link between the prosaic, industrial setting of the filling station, and a more pastoral natural world beyond it.
Doily (Symbol)
The doily in this poem symbolizes love, and in particular the quiet, generous form of love that so strikes the speaker as she surveys her surroundings. It is both entirely unnecessary, with no connection to the work of the filling station, and effortfully created, with a painstaking crocheted pattern. In other words, the speaker can think of no reason for the doily to exist except for the love of its maker, expressed through the labor of making the doily, with the intention of softening and beautifying others' surroundings. The symbol is all the more potent because it is juxtaposed so starkly with the oil-soaked, colorless setting of the filling station. Its very presence suggests that this selfless love exists even in places that seem empty of humanity or loveliness.
