Question

conversing with corinthia
i was sitting with great aunt corinthia (my dads cousin
or something, twice - removed, whatever that means,
some kind of \distant tall relative,\ according to my mom)
in the dining room of her nursing home.
great aunt corinthia is not eating.
shes gazing into her bowl of soup
as if the secret of life, or at the very least, answers
to all of her unanswered questions, were in there somewhere,
hiding in her bowl of split - pea soup.
she whispers, to me.
its the calm before the year of the drought
read the excerpt from \conversing with corinthia\
im focused on that thought
and what it might have been like when
great aunt corinthia takes a sudden detour into a story
about chicken pot and her first \beau.\
beau? oh, i get it: boyfriend. not \bow\ like something tied up with ribbon.
as used in the poem, the \sudden detour\ most nearly means
○ awkward misstep
○ alternate course.
○ quick movement.
○ unexpected turn

Explanation:

In the context of the poem, "sudden detour" is used metaphorically. A detour in a literal sense is a change in the usual path. Here, when Great - Aunt Corinthia starts talking about a story (chicken pot and her first "beau") after the speaker was focused on a certain thought, it's an unexpected shift in the conversation. "Unexpected turn" best captures this idea as it implies a change from the previous direction (the speaker's thought) to a new one (the story about chicken pot and beau) without prior indication.

Answer:

unexpected turn