Water plays a large role in the poem “Telemachus” by Ocean Vuong. Descriptions of, or allusions to water can be found in the text in almost every stanza. I believe that the heavy use of water in the poem represents change and impermanence. The setting of the poem is established as a seashore in the first and second stanzas, by the line “I pull my father out of the water, drag him by his hair through sand”. Seashores are generally seen as ever-changing, carved by waves and the shifting of tides. The ocean’s role as a presence of change is even included in the text, where Vuong says “his knuckles carving a trail the waves rush in to erase”. This gives a sense of urgency and impermanence to the poem as well. The water erasing the knuckle trail