The poem proper opens with the title: “Some days I put the people in their places at the table” (Line 1). “Some days” (Line 1) indicates that the speaker of the poem does not do this every day which is important to the context of the poem in which the speaker eventually describes as “other days” (Line 9). The “I” (Line 1) indicates the speaker is speaking about themselves in the first person. The speaker “puts the people in their places” (Line 1), which means they are in charge and have the power to maneuver “the people” (Line 1). While the physical control the speaker has over “the people” (Line 1) indicates the people are actually dolls, the speaker refers to them as “people” (Line 1) instead of dolls. Treating them as dolls but referring to them as “people” (Line 1) sets up the metaphor for the entire poem in which people are to the world around them as dolls are to people. The speaker “places” (Line 1) the people “at the table” (Line 1). “The table” (Line 1) is symbolic as most of life’s meetings happen around a