Summary

The first line situates the poem beside a pond where addicts sleep. The rocky grass grows both in and out of the water, and the sleeping figures possibly lie half-submerged in the pond. In Lines 3 and 4, the speaker describes the way the moonlight lends the impression of striders, a type of rare amphibious flower. According to the speaker, striders exist "between, but needing, two worlds" (6).

In the final two lines, the speaker asks what readers can possibly accuse the addicts of if not beauty.

Analysis

In her poem "Still Life," Katie Ford intertwines natural imagery and social commentary to paint a portrait of addicts sleeping by a pond. In doing so, she confronts the stigma that allows society to cast marginal populations to the fringes. Like in some of her other poems, Ford grapples with systemic issues using precise diction and evocative figurative language...