Hiya Seirre! Lim here with a review for you 
First Impressions
The first thing I notice about this poem is that it’s very self-referential. I noticed that it talks about wanting a “7 panel post”, and this so happens to be the fifth panel of a 7 panel post. It’s kind of interesting that it talks about wanting the post that talks about these kinds of souls while also being the post that it wants. The voice feels very stream-of-consciousness, with very few long pauses (at least, the way I read it) and the overall shape looking like the speaker just had so much to say. The speaker also comes across as having a very commanding tone, like they’re trying to convince someone of something, with words like “gush on” and “write” giving the audience instructions and phrases like “i will”. The images that linger in my mind after reading this are “red skin peel away” (an interesting tie there between puzzle pieces and sunburns!) and “like ships on a still harbor” (which is quieter than the other descriptions and so stands out).
Interpretation
From what I gather, this poem seems to be commenting on how people praise connections that form very easily and ‘properly’. The speaker instead commands that the audience pay attention to the various other kinds of connections people might form. There is this motif of chaos and intensity in a lot of these, such as “two puzzle pieces butting heads”, “catching their breath”, “obnoxiously bright”, “forced together”, except for the second-to-last one which is the complete opposite of that, being “softly eased”, which seems very low-key and tranquil.
Voice
Something that is very strong in this poem is the voice. The speaker has a very distinct personality that is perhaps amplified by all the formatting details like the hashtags and their username being ‘crashing.comet’. Their mood is frustrated and their attitude towards the state of Instagram posts, I guess, is disparaging. They say “i've had enough” and “i will take anything over another lowercase exaltation”. The way I interpret it, even when they’re talking about connection and praising it, it’s about criticizing the thing they want to criticize, the kind of connection that is praised by the other Instagram posts. Having that in mind, I like that the word choices throughout the piece reflect this critical attitude towards the medium, using phrases like “wannabe poetry” and “gush on”. Though of course, there is the possibility of a literal interpretation, in which case these word choices would still be good because they reflect the speaker’s passion for their cause.
Continuity
While I understand the general themes of the piece, each connection the speaker describes leaves me feeling a different mood and thinking different thoughts. For example, the first one seems like it’s maybe a story about personal development, about a third member balancing out the other two, but then the second one seems to be some kind of enemies-to-lovers story. They are also described with different strands of imagery: the first seems more domestic while the second has this sun motif. I think it could be said that the variety strengthens the speaker’s point – to say that all these other kinds of connection are good and poetic and worth exploring? At the same time, the way that the ship-motif one suddenly becomes very quiet only to move into ‘loud’ images of souls that “crashed into each other” left me feeling a bit dazed and unsure if there was a meaning behind that contrast. I was left with the question: are the differences between the relationships described relevant to the difference between them and the “just click together” relationship? Hope that makes sense ^^’
Overall
I like the concept of this poem and think it’s creative. Self-referential stuff always gets me. The voice was really memorable as well and helps to unite the different aspects together so I can imagine this speaker as being a detailed character. If the intention was to portray each relationship as being disparate parts of a set, like a few different puzzles, then I think the slight discontinuity and quickly changing mood from one image to another works, though it did leave me feeling like I needed more context, as I said.
Hope some of this helps, and feel free to ask for more feedback/clarification!
-Lim
Points: 45634
Reviews: 562
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