"Dusting" by Rita Dove

The first time I read through this poem it took me a moment to realize that the title "Dusting" might possibly be referring to the search an older woman would be attempting to remember the name of a boy in her past. In order to remember the boy's name, she had to dust the cobwebs from her mind and bury deep into a memory of her youth. Perhaps the woman really is dusting and ironically trying to remember a time in her youth in which she would have to dig deep to recall. "Under her hand scrolls and crests gleam darker still. What was his name, that silly boy at the fair with the rifle booth?" This line may refer to what is beneath the "gray cloth" that "brings dark wood to life" and how it may have some how triggered a memory in which she tries to remember. It is a curious interpretation but a rather entertaining concept. I like to entertain the idea and imagine that the mind would need a little dusting as the person with whom it is in ages. It is an amusing thought that a brain would need a dusting in order to bring back memories in its host. "Not Michael-- something finer. Each dust stroke a deep breath and the canary in bloom." Here the narrator's mind is searching for the name of the "silly boy" and with each dust stroke she gradually uncovers more hints in her memories. And at the end of the poem, alas, the dust has been removed and a single name pops into her memory: "Maurice."