Digging Identity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; (1-2)

Right away we get an idea of who, or at least what, the speaker is (a writer). So that's something, right?

Quote #2

My father, digging. I look down (5)

And right away, we know what occupies his mind. The speaker's identity is totally shaped by how he sees his father.

Quote #3

Bends low, comes up twenty years away (7)

Now we can see further into the past, to where the speaker's identity began to take shape as a young boy, helping out his old man in the potato fields.