Serious question: Why do some poems only make sense after midnight?

I was judging a local poetry contest and one entry was so abstract I nearly dismissed it. Later, I read it aloud to my cat and the rhythm suddenly revealed it was about traffic jams. Does poetry often need a weird context to be understood?

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jade_mason987mo ago

My friend finally understood a cryptic poem during a 3 a.m. laundry cycle, weird how that works.

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adams.luna7mo ago

Back in grad school, I decoded Eliot's 'Wasteland' during a 4 a.m. coffee run. The brain makes weird leaps when you're half-awake and engaged in simple tasks, @jade_mason98.

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moore.stella7mo ago

Ugh jade_mason98, maybe your friend was just sleep deprived. It's just a laundry epiphany, not that deep.

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