okay but is this not just bill talking about himself
like stan taking his father’s fez, bill took his own father’s top hat and made to reinvent himself…
this whole poem reads as bill trying to make it out that he’s soooo powerful that he knows exactly what stanley is thinking, but if he really wanted to get in stan’s head, why poetry? why not use direct statements, why use a method of expression directly tied to the feelings of the speaker?
“when your actions make it worse” he just wanted to show them the stars
“when they see you as a curse” is seeing believing?
“when you’ve lost track of your lies” LIKE COME ON??? IDENTICAL TO HIS THERAPRISM TRANSCRIPT
back to the poem, “And lucky stan—“
unlike stan, bill’s never won any of his bets, not fully. bill’s never got his family back. never won when the odds were all against him. he’s insanely jealous of stanley— it’s not fair.
“redemption from a life of shame” do you think he feels shameful?
“You think you left the past behind.”
bill is always asking for trust, but here? when even his lies are lies? i think this one has twisted into the truth. he likes to think he’s left the past behind, too.
while also revealing bill may still be “alive” in stan’s mind, it shows just how much being defeated by stanley affected him… this conman, a horrible, cheating liar, managed to save his family. and bill cannot get it off his mind.
(there’s so much more i could talk about here— like bill screaming in pain right before this??? good god is that good angst material)
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