Not Waving but Drowning

“The water filled my lungs, I screamed so loud But no one heard a thing”

Uncle Jerry connects the drowning imagery and the line 'no one heard a thing' in Clean to Stevie Smith's poem 'Not Waving but Drowning,' in which a man drowns while onlookers mistake his distress for waving. He notes that the poem is about a spiral of depression that goes unnoticed by others, paralleling Clean's depiction of suffering through addiction and heartbreak without being seen or heard. Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss how both works share the idea that sometimes depression is heavy on you and people don't see it, and that ultimately you have to clean yourself.