Memory
As evidenced by the poem's format, one of its core themes is memory. The speaker revisits her childhood with the hope of revising it, eliminating the traumas she endured. To explore this more deeply, the speaker plays her memories in reverse, resetting various images (her father's leaving, her mother being pushed down the stairs) to reflect her desire to erase and rewrite them. What the vividness of the language reveals is that these memories are irrepressible for the speaker. The images of violence come back to her with startling clarity. She chooses to revisit them through writing because it gives her the chance to heal, instead of simply playing back them in an upsetting loop. Writing gives her some control over these images, as she works to rewrite them and thereby re-narrate her own story.
Love
One of the poem's other central themes is love. The speaker notes repeatedly that she wants to rewrite her childhood and fill it with love, in the hopes that this can right some of the wrongs done to her, her sister, and her mother. In this regard, the poem as a whole is an expression of love. She knows that she cannot really alter the past, but in expressing her desire to change it, she wants her sister to feel the love and care she has for her. This message stands in stark contrast to the various forms of abuse they suffered as children. The speaker uses the juxtaposition of these actions and her emotions to highlight her wish to change the past. As the poem is focused on the act of rewriting the past, the love that the speaker mentions repeatedly represents what she felt was severely lacking in her past.
Violence
Another significant theme in the poem is violence. In the text, violence manifests in the form of both physical and sexual violence. The poet describes her bloody nose as well as her mother being pushed down the stairs. She also less overtly references sexual abuse, saying she would give stumps to the men who touched her and her sister without their consent. These acts of cruelty are central to the poem, as they are exactly what the speaker wishes she could undo. They demonstrate the lack of love she and her sister experienced in their home life, as well as the abuse that Shire shows that the women in her life often experience from a young age. Violence is the primary force of the trauma she and her sister experienced and her main goal in revising the past appears to be erasing these moments.
