Tracking Juxtaposed Behaviors: On Gabe Montesanti’s “The Signs”

Micro Review of:
“The Signs”
By Gabe Montesanti
Okay Donkey
11 April 2025

I want to say that I am the type of person who can let things go, who keeps an eye on the future, and moves forward. But that would be a lie. Even as I take two steps forward, there is always at least one step back. As I read Gabe Montesanti’s “The Signs,” it reminded me of my struggles with moving on and the trap of living in the past.

“The Signs” is a short prose poem, 220 words, yet nothing is wasted. It repeats the word “backtracking” in each sentence, save the last one. Each line delights in colorful descriptions and word play, which alleviates the possibility of “backtracking” losing its importance through repetition or submitting to semantic satiation. The poem is self-aware this way, assuring us that this “mindless repetition” is to “smooth what was once rough.” It’s a cheeky line, in the vein of “sorry-not-sorry,” and it adds to the humor in the piece. But there’s a melancholy to this humor, as if the speaker is attempting to make the reader smile, hoping they don’t notice the pain and regret. The poem’s sentences are active, creating the impression of the speaker moving forward, juxtaposing nicely with “backtracking,” which creates a subtle tension through movement and contraction. The prose poem as a form is effective here: there are no stanzas or line breaks—just sentence after sentence, each following one another as the poem marches towards its conclusion.

“The Signs” is also a meditation on the repetition of destructive behavior and the inability to break from that cycle. Halfway through the poem, “backtracking” rhetorically asks: What is the difference between backtracking and nostalgia? The speaker finds themselves conflicted with their own memory and their actions in the past, which we must assume created outcomes that were not ideal. I say this because the poem takes a more aggressive feel after this rhetorical question is asked; referring to a face pressed against the frozen tundra, the friction of sanding, and Horace’s disiecta membra. As the violence increases, the frustration and desperation of the speaker leads them to a moment of deus ex machina: begging for extraterrestrials to come and bring about salvation. This poem never loses its sense of humor, and when the final line arrives, Montesanti switches words around. Instead of “backtracking,” we are given “track back,” which helps us understand, truly, what the narrator has been doing all this time.

As I reflect on this prose poem, I have to admit that when I have regressed in my life, there has always been a warning that came first. Perhaps this is what Montesanti intended in choosing “The Signs” as a title. Through reflection, one can see that going backwards doesn’t occur in a vacuum; there are always red flags. Even when one tries to run away, the warnings are still there.

Matthew Groff is a writer and theatre artist living in New York City. His work has been published in Rejection Letters and most recently in The Bookends Review. Matthew is a husband, father, sketchbook enthusiast, and loyal companion to the family dog. Additional thoughts and reviews can be found at his website, matthewgroffblog.com.

Gabe Montesanti is the author of BRACE FOR IMPACT: A MEMOIR, which chronicles her time skating for Arch Rival Roller Derby. She earned her MFA at Washington University in St. Louis. Her work has been published in Huffington Post, LA Times, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a second memoir.