The Diesel Truck - “Blind curse”
The speaker states, “I think that as a diesel truck/passes us eight miles east of Mission/Churning through the storm heedless/of the hill sliding away.” The diesel truck embodies the Fancies that emerge when one is unconscious. The imaginings are not constrained by the Symbolic Order which is exemplified by the storm and hill.
Burly men - “Busted Boy”
These men grab the boy and detain him by means of handcuffs and a pole. The men are plain-clothed police officers who watch out for criminals and impede their criminal doings (busting).
Canyon - “Culture and the Universe”
The canyon is obscure. The darkness in the canyon typifies the human beings’ obliviousness of some cultural concerns. Human beings are in the dark with respect to extensive culture.
Time - “Time as Memory as Story”
Time is a motif for fluid indiscernibility. The speaker says, “Time has no mercy. It’s there. It says still or it moves. And you’re there with it. Staying still or moving with it.” The amorphousness of time makes it problematic to catalog it as either a motionless or a movable actuality.
