This is a short poem consisting of 2 stanzas, 6 lines each. I really like this poem for its examination of a an old trick many of us have known about since we were kids.
"You know the parlor trick
Wrap your arms around your body
and from the back it looks like
someone is embracing you...."
These lines take you back and stimulate your memory because at some point or another popular culture has introduced many of us to this little trick. By introducing this visual memory the reader of this poem must seem drawn to it because it is something you can relate to with the masses.
"Her hands grasping your shirt,
her fingernails teasing your neck."
Those imaginary hands "grasping" and those imaginary fingernails "teasing" are vivid visual images painted in your head. This is the view from the back of a person where it is implied that there is another person on the other side expressing their passion and feelings to the person being embraced.
The second stanza changes courses.
"From the front it is another story.
You never looked so alone,"
The reader (at least in my case) is taken back because this sudden shift points out a completely different point of view. There is not another loving person hugging the one and the person wrapping his-her own arms around their body looks like they desperately want to hold on to another person.
"You could be waiting for a tailor
to fit you for a straitjacket,
one that would hold you really tight."
Collins has shown us both sides of the coin. If you look from the back, you might see a positive, loving image. From the front, you might see a crazy, delusional person waiting to be restrained to prevent to him/her to cause harm to themselves or others. If we look at the title of this poem Embrace we see two sides to it too. A loving embrace from another person (or yourself) or the restricting, uncomfortable embrace from a straitjacket.
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