Mother Any Distance

• "You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape"


  Extended Metaphor - tape measure is symbolic of the umbilical cord, suggests they have a strong bond
• "Anchor. Kite."


  Extended metaphor of the umbilical cord

  Mother is restraining her son (the 'Anchor') and the son (the 'Kite') attempts to free himself
• "the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors"


  Hyperbolic imagery - embarks theme of exploration, the largeness of the images suggests he's intimidated by the prospect of growing up & gaining independence
• "metres, centimetres" , "one-hundredth of an inch"


  Semantic field of measurement - could suggest how far speaker could go without his mum
• "I reach/ towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky/ to fall or fly."


  possible Bird imagery - son is a young bird becoming independent from his mother but doesn't know if he'll succeed without her
• "two floors below your fingertips still pinch"


  the verb 'pinch' suggests mother wants to cling to her son