Unlock the Air

What can words do? What power can words convey? Rives made use of this notion. He analyzed something no one else may have thought before. The thought of "mockingbird Molotov cocktails" doesn't mean putting birds in a burning bottle, but that there is a specific power in noticing the words of others. He spoke of listening to how people communicate, the way they interact, and the notion that whatever they may be saying, it is still important. He wanted to "unlock the air" and understand what everyone was saying. The quotation that shook the entire poem was when he said he wanted to "unlock the air, I'll listen to what's missing, and I'll put it there." He wanted to find out what people fail to say and what could or should be said. To Rives, it appears that speech is something of untapped potential for power. What a person form any aspect of the world may or may not say is of the utmost importance. What he spoke of sounded like a form of eavesdropping in which he finds what goes through the very mind of the every person.