Process

I don't want the end to seem like a bitter irony of how unity is totally impossible. I just want to set the bar high for what it truly entails.

Something about all the pivots in a short piece makes it feel like there are too many pieces stitched together.

I want to linger on the thin divide between selfishness and an innate/healthy sense of self-worth.

This is better with a more concrete setting to ground the abstractions.

The second to last stanza is almost like a justification as well, so I think more linger would balance this.

The poem is about starfish in a very literal sense; my mother voiced a vivid memory on the drive to Homer for a writers conference.