9 and 10. The last tissue she refers to is human tissue. She says that human tissue is a ‘structure never meant to last’. In other words she is saying that humans are mortal. We won’t live forever. We can be hurt – think, for example, how easily our ‘skin’ can be scratched or bruised.

8. The poet now calls for ‘daylight’ to break through capital cities and big skyscrapers (‘monoliths’). Capital cities are where governments are based so she might be saying she wants the light to reveal the truth of what happens behind these buildings.

7. The poet now says that an ‘architect’ might never to build again with brick and instead, build with tissue paper.

6. Receipts ‘fine slips’ are also like tissue paper. They tell us how much people spent on their ‘credit card’. She compares a credit card to a ‘kite’ showing how it can ‘fly our lives.’ This could mean that money can set us free and control us too. This shows us the power of humans.

5. Next she says that ‘Maps too’ are also made of tissue paper. She says that the ‘sun shines through their borderlines.’ Nature shines through the things humans have made.

4. Now she suggests that ‘buildings’ are like paper too. She says this because they fall away on a ‘sigh’ and can be moved by the wind. This shows they buildings aren’t strong.

3. The previous stanza is continued. She now says that you can also find the ‘height and weight’ of people who have died. She also says how people have ‘smoothed and stroked’ these pages so much they have become ‘transparent’, which means see through. This might be a little odd considering the information referred to here is quite ordinary and unimportant.

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2. Now she refers to a specific religious text, the Koran. She says that in this text names of people, their parents are recorded.

1.In this stanza, the poet is talking about a religious text. She says it is a type of paper which let’s the light shine through. She says the light can ‘alter’ things. This perhaps shows that these texts are powerful.

2

1

So, overall, this poem suggests on one level that human beings are powerful. They have created things big and powerful things like religion, buildings and the economy. But, on the other hand, the poet suggests that humans power is not a good thing. For example, money can control people’s lives because they might get into debt. She also suggests that humans won’t last forever. She also suggests nature is more powerful than humans.

Now try to answer the following questions. In some cases there is more than 1 correct answer.

1. What is the first kind of tissue paper that the poet refers to?

a. Toilet paper

b. Maps

c. Religious texts

2. In stanza one, why do you think the poet uses the light?

a) To show that religious texts improve your eyesight

b) To show how religious texts can enable people to become better people – to see the moral light.

c) To show how religious texts can make people happier.

d) To show how religious texts are a bad thing.

3. In stanza 4, when the poet says buildings ‘might fall away on a sigh,’ what method is this?

a. Simile

b. Metaphor

c. Personification

4. What might the effect of this line be: ‘might fall away on a sigh’?

a. To show that the poet is happy that people spend time building structures.

b. To show disappointment in humans who waste time building structures.

5. In Stanza 6, the poet says that ‘credit cards might fly our lives like paper kites’. What method does she use here?

a) Simile

b) Metaphor

c) Personification.

6. What is the effect of the above method?

a) It shows how money get set us free.

b) It shows how money is useless.

c) It shows how money can control us.

d) It shows how money is dangerous.

7. In stanza 8, why does the poet want ‘daylight to break through capitals and monoliths?’

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8. What kind of tissue does the poet refer to at the end of the poem? What is she trying to say about us?

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