The Worst and the Best
The Worst and the Best - meaning Summary
Finding Small Salvations
The poem stages a relentless contrast between misery and tiny, idiosyncratic pleasures. Repeated refrains mark public and private scenes as "the worst," while brief, concrete images—falling, old dogs, popcorn, slicing tomatoes—become "the best." The speaker treats suffering as pervasive but finds value in small, often grim or ordinary moments. The final line personalizes the inventory: these oppositions register a lone, candid worldview of what endures for the speaker.
Read Complete Analysesin the hospitals and jails it's the worst in madhouses it's the worst in penthouses it's the worst in skid row flophouses it's the worst at poetry readings at rock concerts at benefits for the disabled it's the worst at funerals at weddings it's the worst at parades at skating rinks at sexual orgies it's the worst at midnight at 3 a.m. at 5:45 p.m. it's the worst falling through the sky firing squads that's the best thinking of India looking at popcorn stands watching the bull get the matador that's the best boxed lightbulbs an old dog scratching peanuts in a celluloid bag that's the best spraying roaches a clean pair of stockings natural guts defeating natural talent that's the best in front of firing squads throwing crusts to seagulls slicing tomatoes that's the best rugs with cigarette burns cracks in sidewalks waitresses still sane that's the best my hands dead my heart dead silence adagio of rocks the world ablaze that's the best for me.
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