visions / of Grimaldi’s and Juliana’s everlasting duel
-- Speaker (Lines 5-6)

Importance: Grimaldi’s and Juliana’s are both established, traditional brick oven pizzerias in Brooklyn. This line hints at their business rivalry using colourful, hyperbolic language that positions them as sword fighters. This duality between the banal and the extraordinary defines the tone of the poem.

in a jewel-encrusted cone / and letting its icy fingers creep down your throat
-- Speaker (Lines 8-9)

Importance: This line forms the key turning point in the poem. Until and including the description of a decadent ice cream, compared to a piece of jewelery, the poem has been filled with whimsy and wonder. As the speaker eats the ice cream — an act of physical motion and movement — the scene turns much darker. This highlights the sinister mood underlying the poem.

inkblot clouds closing ranks
-- Speaker (Line 14)

Importance: This line uses personification to enhance the claustrophobia the speaker is feeling in this moment. The active...