The author's purpose in this work is that of a creative statement. The poem is mostly about the fragility of life and destiny. The work is not so much about the terrorists, as one would think at first read, it is about the bomb. More importantly, the poem is about the explosion and what that entails for life following it. Szymborska is not necessarily trying to influence the reader's beliefs or values directly, but the author is trying to get the reader to realize how precious life is, and how even the smallest of decisions can change everything. The phrase: "The girl's gone. Was she that dumb, did she go in or not, we'll see when they carry them out", really brings the idea home how fragile life is. The way the author uses words like "fat" and "bald" to describe the customers, shows how the author wants to portray the normality of the customers.

The way the author uses the countdown technique makes the work more suspenseful. This, in turn, causes the pace of the poem to quicken as a relatively larger amount of time is covered in this number of lines. Furthermore, the way the narrator describes the scene so matter-of-factly makes the work seem heartless. However, the description of each customer contradicts this, because the narrator seems genuinely concerned about each one. This creates a nice contrasting effect which almost forces the reader to decide how he or she feels about it. The phrase: "and what a view ? just like in the movies:", makes the reader able to picture the scene, and really become a part of it. The abrupt ending of the poem with the line "The bomb, it explodes", leaves an eerie silence to the reader.

The work communicates fairly well. The author leaves the reader feeling sorry for the characters and the people who are connected to them. After the line "The bomb, it explodes", the reader feels sort of lost, as well as a strong sadness toward the characters. However, the reader also feels angry about the narrator for not doing anything about the explosion. The reader cannot help but feel a strong sense of appreciation for his or her own life. Thus realizing how precious life is, which is what is to be believed as the author's purpose.

The text has value to the reader for the sheer fact that each person should appreciate his or her life, as well as understand how fragile it all is. The work is worth the effort to readjust as a reminder of how one should live with no regrets in case they were to be in a situation like the one described. I believe the work is insightful and meaningful because it documents the real emotions involved in a terrorist attack. I feel the author's real purpose was to say something meaningful and not to just make money, because of the type of poem the work was. I believe after an analysis of the text, the piece is worthwhile, and a very insightful piece.