What is Rodney Jones arguing in this poem?
I think that Rodney Jones is arguing that words are very powerful, and that once you say them or write them you cannot take it back. Even once you think an idea, its hard to completely erase that idea from your mind even if you never shared it with anyone else. I think he is saying that because words are very powerful that they should not be wasted. When he says "when it came on me how sweet it had been, / then the idea I was not finished," he is comparing the power of words and language to his coconut milk and rum. Wishing he did not waste the coconut milk and rum by pouring it in to the water. He is saying that we should not waste our words the way that he wasted his drink.
Thank you for your very insightful post! I did not think about the poem in terms of words at all. I think that is a very interesting interpretation. It makes sense because he says at the start of the poem, "No image like the image of language." Have you considered that Jones could also be making the point that words can create a more powerful argument than pictures? Maybe he is saying that the images he is about to paint in words can be more powerful than any image painting with a picture. Still, I really like your interpretation that we should not waste words like Jones wasted his rum. Thank you for this comment!
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