(He's a drifter, always

floating around her, has
nowhere else to go. He wishes
she would sing, not much, just the scales;
or take some notice,
give him the fish eye.)

(Bounded by round walls
she makes fish eyes
and kissy lips at him, darts
behind pebbles, swallows
his charms hook, line and sinker)

(He's bowled over. He would
take her to the ocean, they could
count the waves. There,
in the submarine silence, they would share
their deepest secrets. Dive for pearls
like stars.)

(But her love's since
gone belly-up. His heart sinks
like a fish. He drinks
like a stone. Drowns those sorrows,
stares emptily through glass.)

(the reason, she said
she wanted)
(and he could not give)
a life
beyond the
(bowl)

By Grace Chua

And from the poem saying "by round walls" it gives the reader an image of two goldfish is a fish bowl as a fish bowl has round walls. So this provides the setting of the poem. and from the poem "swallows his charms hook, line and sinker" could mean that the female goldfish had to bare the male fish's pick up lines and his looks. 

And in the third stanza there are lots of ifs for example "there, in the submarine silence, they would share their deepest secrets. dive for pearls like stars." shows that this is a thing that the male gold fish wants to do with female gold fish if given the chance. And also "pearls like stars" is a simile that is being used here.

And I find the fourth stanza the most interesting as from the line "But her love's since gone belly-up." could mean that the female fish has died as when a fish dies they float to the top of the water with their stomach facing upwards after a while after sinking like the male fish's heart from the poem. And since the female fish has died the poem says "His heart sinks like a fish. He drinks like a stone. Drowns those sorrows, stares emptily through the glass." would show that since the female fish has died the male fish is very sad and all his hopes and dream he had for them has vanished which would show why he "stares emptily through glass" and the glass is probably the glass of the gold fish bowl he is stuck in. And also saying "he drinks like a stone" could be a reference to how men in real life usually drink till they get wasted after something sad happening to them which in this case would be the death of the female fish. 

And at the last stanza it could be what the female fish said before she had died, which is "she wanted and he could not give a life beyond the bowl" , and this could be a reason to why the female fish had died which is that she wanted a life outside the fishbowl like in the male fish's dreams and the male fish could not make the dreams a reality. And the also the ending could mean how a girl would leave a guy because the guy could not give the girl what she wants.

The poem is made by its restraint and its resonant, perfectly-pitched ending. The repetitiveness here is neither gratuitous nor over-important, it suggests that the echoing sounds like a phone ring, ‘beep beep.” And it used to make a sense that the telephone in the middle of the snowing place is very important, as the write emphasizes on it alot.

When she picked up the phone in the telephone stand, a voice said “ winter, she said, is coming are u wearing a suit.” This shows that the “woman” on the other side is very concern about the girl in the poem as she asked her if she was wearing a coat, and it was during winter, so she was afraid that she might feel chilly or she might get frost bite.

The poet also wrote that ‘the calls comes like geese’ this tells us that the poet was trying to say that the calls came lots of time and it became noisy like a flock of geese migrating to another place, therefore trying to tell us that the phone ring alot of times.