[Help] Close reading of a poem called The White Taxi

[Dilbanger]

Heather Pyrcz wrote a book called Night son Prospect Street which has a collection of poems in it. Prospect is a street by Acadia University which a lot of students live on. Heather was also a English Teacher at Acaida.

I need to do a close reading on some of her poems and was wondering if anybody good help me with this short poem:

The White Taxi

How many nights will it take
how many rides in the white taxi
down Prospect Street at two in the morning
before he knows where he is going?

I think it has to do with a journey out of naivety and the white taxi represents innocence. It's a students journey into adulthood.

Any input would be nice. I want to understand the meaning of night time and the white taxi.

Here is another similar poem that also includes a white taxi:

NIGHT SWEATS

They're all awake but hiding
-have been for hours-
days-no-weeks now
you can see the blue grey
of their televisions flickering
aberrant in the night
flare of moon, match, firefly
Did they die forgetting how
to shift, to rise forgetting
to eat, resisting sleep
is it their dreams they fear?
Some of them roam at night
in packs trackless dispersed
scattered energy
searching for the white taxi

[YesNo]

I don't know what a "close" reading is, but your understanding of The White Taxi as a "student's journey into adulthood" seems reasonable. I am no expert in understanding poetry.

On the surface the student knows where he is going because he requested a taxi ride and had to give a destination. But that is his current routine. Where is he really going with all these taxi rides? To get a degree? To get a job? He probably doesn't know yet, but time will take him further along and his studies will end. He will know something different then. Why "white" taxi? That seems like it should mean something, but it doesn't mean much to me.