High School Poem

In the poem "High School Senior," a mother goes through waves of feelings and realizations as she sees her daughter off to college. The speaker feels as though a part of her is stripped away with the departure of her daughter. She feels nostalgic about her pregnancy with her daughter as she recalls the precious memory at the start of the poem. She fears she may not survive without her daughter a her daughter is "like food or air," like essentials to life. She tries to imagine herself in a "house without her (her daughter) ... but she can't." However, she comes to a realization that she must lived with her daughter for the past seventeen years as compared to some creatures "whose children float away at birth." She knows her hard work of raising her daughter will not go to waste unlike some animals "who throat-feed their young for weeks and never see them again." Last but not least, the speaker realizes that the mother and daughter love will never be lost. Throughout the poem, the feelings the speaker goes through change dramatically from a mournful atmosphere at her daughter to gratefulness for the never ending love for her girl that signifies the presence of said daughter within the speaker herself.