"Getting Out"

"Taking hands

we walked apart, until our arms stretched

between us.  We held on tight and let go" (21-23).

In Cleopatra Mathis's "Getting Out," the tone of the speaker appears to be nostalgic - that's a tone, right?  If it is not a tone, then I guess I would go with regretful.  The speaker really does not seem to feel the same now as he did when they broke up.  The imagery of a feuding couple is juxtaposed by the only tangible memory of the speaker which practically depicts them as being born for each other.  The main imagery in the passage is sound.  This imagery is even paired with a simile (that's so cool!) in line 13 when they heaved "words like furniture."  I don't know about you, but if I was being bombarded with furniture, then I would expect it to be quite painful.  The couple needed to learn to talk with each other more respectfully.  Now, they speak once a month through the mail and their words are only hurtful.  Personally, I feel like they would not even still communicate if they did not have love for each other.  They only "held on tight" because they did not want to leave, but they felt like they had to.  It's almost like that feeling when you flip a coin that it will land on one or the other, even if you are only flipping it because you were in a toss up.  Neither wanted to leave, yet both couldn't stay.