Comment: I am from... an ordinary snapshot

Colleen,

     I think the 2nd, 5th, and 8th stanzas are abstractions.  The more concrete elements you use to propell the remainder of the poem (cracked pots, straight pins, dirty hands, and black reverent dresses) are vivid and do a lot of work that the more abstract sections fail to do.     Think about the message contained in the following passage:                      I am from gray uncertainty/from fantasy, really, lost/from reality.  There's the old adage, show don't tell, and I think this type of movement feels like the narrator framing the poem for the reader.  I think if you trust the imagery you use to describe your background we're sophisticated enough to get what the poem is about.  Trust your writing and your vision as a poet.  If the image resonates for you, there's probably something to it.  When you start to tell us what we need to see it's like reading an instruction manual.

Brent