Morning Song

The speaker says, “Yes, she knows how to take a picture / with her phone” (Lines 5-6), which describes the tiny journalist’s method of documentation. The global usage of phones and social media as a means of communication has made it possible for people to share details of their lives with others living far away. The smartphone has been under attack for its frequent presence and subsequent disconnection of face-to-face contact, but it is also—as in this case—a way of reaching out to others for awareness, validation, and even assistance.

The speaker notes how the tiny journalist holds the phone “high / like a balloon” (Lines 6-7). There is a sense of pride in the way she holds the phone and also a sense of confidence, as if she knows what she is doing and why she is doing it. The comparison to a balloon suggests childlike playfulness, again centering on the blatancy of her age and diminutive life experience.

In “Morning Song,” the speaker questions what anyone, particularly the Israeli soldiers, could want of the tiny journalist, and responds to this question first with the answer, “Her treasures / the shiny buttons her grandmother loved” (Lines 21-22). These buttons, an heirloom that likely has more value to the journalist than anyone outside her family, are fair game for the Israeli soldiers to take.