Reflection of Linda Pastan's "Pass/Fail" #7

Poem:
you will never graduate
from this dream
of blue books.
no matter how
you succeed awake,
asleep there is a test
waiting to be failed.
the dream beckons with two dull pencils,
but you haven't even
taken the course;
when you reach for a book--
it closes its door
in your face; when
you conjugate a verb--
it is in the wrong
language.
now the pillow becomes
a blank page. turn it
to the cool side;
you will still mother
in all of the feathers
and have to be learned
by heart


Reflection: 
I believe this poem is about how everyone has their own struggles, obstacles, and tests that they have to face and overcome just to survive in life. Whether that be something externally, meaning a conflict a person faces that includes another person or thing, or something internally, meaning emotions, fears, and thoughts that said person needs to overcome. the line that says "you will never graduate from this dream" to me means that you will have to live through these many tests for the rest of your waking life, you may pass through one conflict but there will always be another one right there to take it's spot, life will find a successor to fill the spot that the old conflict had once taken.  The line that mentions how there was a course you never took and the book just closes its door in your face made me think of adulthood and how that is an obstacle we all have to face by ourselves, we all need to find a way to survive through it on out owns: "but you haven't even taken the course; when you reach for a book-- it closes its door in your face". No one teaches you what you have to do as an adult, school teaches you how to do things that are mandatory for adults like jury duty and paying taxes, but no one teaches you how to make that transition from goofy little kid to mature adult you just have to wing it and hope for the best, like you would on a test for a course you know nothing about. But you can always start over and change, it's never too late to learn from your past: "not the pillow becomes a blank page. turn it to the cool side; you will still mother in all of the feathers and have learned...", this quote means that you can always start over, but you can never erase anything, you will still be that goofy little kid underneath that mature adult.