Don’t come back

Pushes back

awful form

then fall on the floor

start rolling around

furious and humiliated

I picture

hollow, empty

I fight them

in my frustration

“Death of a Salesman” is a tragic play written by Arthur Miller based on 1950s America. Willy Loman, a salesman who is married to Linda and has two sons, Biff, and Happy, returns home from a failed sales trip most of the nights. He always believed in American dream where people gets success from their hard work. However, in spite of  working hard day and night, he has to borrow money from Charlie, his neighbor, for insurance, fridge, house mortgage, and car. He believes he could be successful just like Ben but never turned out to be one and decides to commit suicide for the insurance money, which is a lot more than what he brings home. He sees this as a chance for his family to be rich and prosperous again. He is a symbol of a depression, lost, and miserable man. He even cheats on his wife, who cares about him the most. He does not notice that he has a developing Alzheimer. All of Willy Loman’s behaviors, the flow of the play shows this as a tragedy.

My blackout poem describes how Willy Loman tries to be successful but always gets pushed back, and falls to the bottom, which gets repeated. His lacking of money, him getting no respect from others, and getting humiliated from Howard, frustrates him, which also leaves him empty when returning home. My illustration shows Willy Loman looking up the night sky, looking at the stars, hoping that someday his perseverance leads him to reach those stars.