Left alone in the past

This poem is very relevant because similarly, Jonas' felt hurt when he realised that his father's job had a dark side to it, and that many things went on in the world that he and the rest of the people of his age were probably unaware of. The mood in this poem is sad and melancholic, which exactly reflects the way Jonas felt when he realised several ugly truths.
Also, Jonas was told by his mother that once he went into adulthood, he would not be as close to his childhood friends any more. Although Jonas denied this, he felt detached from Asher and Fiona when they were having a friendly game of war. Similarly, in this poem, the speaker experiences feelings of loss when 'She walked away from [the speaker]' and when their friendships felt strained and 'never meant to last'. These sentences show how alone Jonas feels when he gains more knowledge about his community.
In the poem, the speaker is not sure how to deal with his problems, and wonders if 'another pill' would help. As in The Giver, Jonas had to deal with much pain because he was not allowed to request for relief-of-pain medicine. This poem reflects much about how helpless he feels.
Lastly, the poem also talks about the pain of physical injury, and how people are roughly treated, where he lives. This is very reflective of Jonas' society, where people who are deemed unfit to live in that community are 'released'. These feelings are reflected angrily, as Jonas felt, in the second stanza, where the speaker feels agitated and says that 'Who is next in line?', which when put on context of The Giver, could be related to Gabriel and his imminent release; and when the speaker says 'will you too, break their spine?' it could be related to the concept of release in The Giver. Therefore, the speaker feels very angry at the way things are done, in the poem.

Finally, I think that this poem is very appropriate also because Jonas wants to escape the community, and despite the difficulties, is determined, just like the speaker in the poem, who did not want anyone to ‘bother [him] anymore’. This shows that Jonas and the speaker are tired of the way the things are run wherever they are, and wish to face up to it, although Jonas does it differently from the speaker in the poem.