“Isn’t a raw fish, being stripped of scales”
The speaker refers to the imagery of a fish that is “being stripped of scales” to emphasize that her Self is intact; it has not been dismantled yet. The speaker is not laid bare to undertakings that would occasion Self-deception.
Say I’m not // a drunken disco ball//In a lonely skating rink.
The speaker is restrained; hence, she maintains a prevailing sense of direction. If the speaker were deficient of self-control, she would have skated arbitrarily like an uncontainable disco ball. The speaker embraces an operative bearing that administers her engagements.
“Somewhere. They sound so tragic & beautiful/But they mean nothing to me”
The writings that the speaker anticipates to incorporate in the poem are conflicting for they synchronously connote disaster and magnificence. The lines elicit tension which encumbers the speaker from getting the exceptional connotation from them.
"I am crying/Everytime he plays the sad song in my/Mouth"
The speaker’s weeping suggests that she does not take pleasure in oral sex (‘sad song’). The song depresses the speaker because it is undignified. The speaker must yield to the song for it is what will bestow her funds for subsistence.
