Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lucia Maria Perillo’s "Dangerous Life" is a meditation on defiance, societal expectations, and the survival skills imparted to young girls—both real and symbolic. The poem’s speaker moves through a personal history of abandoning prescribed roles, rejecting the expected path of womanhood, and instead embracing the unsteady, unpredictable existence that comes with self-determination. Through a blend of dark humor, unsettling imagery, and poignant nostalgia, the poem critiques the constraints placed on women while affirming the resilience and resourcefulness that come from living outside those constraints.

The poem opens with a dramatic and surreal anecdote: “I quit med school when I found out the stiff they gave me / had book 9 of Paradise Lost and the lyrics / to ‘Louie Louie’ tattooed on her thighs.” The reference to Paradise Lost immediately evokes themes of rebellion and fallenness—Book 9 contains the pivotal moment when Eve eats the forbidden fruit, bringing about the fall of humankind. This connection suggests that the speaker’s decision to leave medical school is a kind of defiant act, a rejection of imposed knowledge and authority. The juxtaposition of Milton’s epic poem with “Louie Louie,” a rock song infamous for its supposedly obscene lyrics, underscores the collision of high and low culture, of the sacred and the profane. The presence of these texts on the body of a cadaver—the ultimate site of scientific objectification—introduces a tension between the rigid structures of academia and the chaotic, lived experiences of the body.

The next stanza shifts to a more immediate and visceral moment: “That morning as the wind was mowing / little ladies on a street below, I touched a Bunsen burner / to the Girl Scout sash whose badges were the measure of my worth.” The phrase “wind mowing / little ladies” suggests a cold, indiscriminate force knocking people over, a metaphor for the rigid systems that shape and restrict women’s lives. The speaker’s burning of her Girl Scout sash signals an act of rebellion against the values it represents. The badges, which “were the measure of my worth,” symbolize the traditional accomplishments expected of young girls—skills that prepare them for a life of domesticity and social conformity.

The badges are then listed: “Careers . . . / Cookery, Seamstress . . . / and Baby Maker . . . all gone up in smoke.” The ellipses create a sense of trailing thought, as if the speaker is both cataloging and dismissing these roles in real time. “Careers” is mentioned first, but the specific examples focus on traditionally feminine, domestic roles. The final phrase—“Baby Maker . . . all gone up in smoke”—carries particular weight, suggesting a rejection of reproductive expectations and, by extension, the conventional trajectory of womanhood.

Yet, amid this rejection, one badge is retained: “But I kept the merit badge marked Dangerous Life.” This is the turning point of the poem, the moment where the speaker’s alternative path becomes clear. The Dangerous Life badge suggests a different kind of survival—a refusal to conform, an embrace of uncertainty. The stanza that follows reveals the origins of this skill: “for which, if you remember, the girls were taken to the woods / and taught the mechanics of fire.” This recalls a moment from childhood where fire—often symbolic of destruction but also of transformation—was introduced not as a danger to be feared, but as a skill to be mastered.

The image of the girls dancing around fire is powerful and unsettling: “around which they had us dance with pointed sticks / lashed into crucifixes that we’d wrapped with yarn and wore / on lanyards round our necks, calling them our ‘Eyes of God.’” The “pointed sticks” turned into crucifixes evoke a sense of ritual, possibly even an unconscious exorcism of societal expectations. The “Eyes of God” could suggest both the omnipresent gaze of judgment and the possibility of seeing beyond imposed narratives. This moment in the poem connects youthful indoctrination with later resistance—suggesting that even within institutions designed to mold young girls, there were unintended lessons in autonomy and survival.

The poem then shifts to the present, where the speaker faces the consequences of her choices: “Now my mother calls the pay phone outside my walk-up, raving / about what people think of a woman—thirty, unsettled, / living on food stamps, coin-op Laundromats & public clinics.” The mother’s concern is not just for the speaker’s well-being, but for “what people think”—a clear reflection of societal pressure. The details of the speaker’s life—“food stamps, coin-op Laundromats & public clinics”—paint a picture of economic struggle, but also of independence. This is a woman who has stepped away from prescribed stability and now occupies a precarious but self-determined space.

In the final stanza, the speaker returns to a childhood ritual: “Some nights I take my lanyards from their shoebox, / practice baying those old camp songs to the moon.” This act of revisiting the past suggests both nostalgia and reclamation. The “lanyards,” once symbols of girlhood training, are now artifacts of endurance. The speaker “baying... to the moon” evokes a primal, untamed energy, positioning her outside conventional domesticity and closer to something wild and instinctual.

The poem closes with a reminder of what was once taught: “And remember how they told us / that a smart girl could find her way out of anywhere, alive.” This final line is both a reassurance and a challenge. The lessons of girlhood—the very ones meant to prepare young women for a safe, structured life—have instead equipped the speaker for survival in a different sense. She may be unsettled, but she is alive, and she has found her own way.

"Dangerous Life" is a poem of rebellion, survival, and self-definition. It critiques the narrow roles assigned to women while celebrating the resilience required to reject them. Through vivid imagery and an arc that moves from childhood indoctrination to adult resistance, Perillo presents a speaker who has chosen instability over conformity, risk over restriction. The poem does not offer easy redemption or resolution—there is no triumphant success story, no conventional triumph. Instead, it leaves us with a woman who, despite uncertainty, possesses the knowledge that she can survive on her own terms. The Dangerous Life badge, once an ironic emblem of controlled rebellion, has become a lived reality.

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