At the start of the poem, it is clear the intended audience is everyone reading – you. In line one, we read “Look at you.” Elle uses this poem as a personal address to acknowledge the strength we have within ourselves.

The poet, Alex Elle, takes the topic resilience and maintains this theme throughout the entire poem. Out of every line within the four stanza poem, this line “still growing” (line 7) sticks out to me. The poem seems to be based around cheering someone on and letting that someone know they survived their struggle. While as readers, we are never introduced to the struggle. This just allows for more creativity to blossom. “Still growing” (line 7) possesses multiple meanings, and the meaning can change with its location in the poem. Its current location gives this aura of being a miracle. Within the second stanza, the narrator expresses disbelief that the subject of the poem is still capable of growing and succeeding. Being “picked and plucked and prodded” (line 9-10) and “defeated and disassembled” (line 16), it should come as no surprise that the narrator would be in disbelief. However, what truly captures one’s attention is that each stanza is being directed at the reader. With the use of “you”, Alex Elle allows readers to not only feel empowered reading about someone succeeding. But discover themselves being the subject of success.

Do you know what the most resilient thing on this Earth is? A weed. They’ll grow through anything-gravel, dirt, rocks, concrete. When Alex Elle uses the phrase “picked and plucked”, she is using imagery to compare our resilience to that of a weed. Even when a weed is plucked, it will grow back as something more-more beautiful; disguised like a flower, and it will be more difficult to pluck.

Love is the only reason human life exist.