so, here are my thoughts, after re-thinking this work. With the pole being the subject, but also the power of eyelines, the two people staring at each other creat a line, that goes to the on-off switch of the pole. That's a triangle. Boom, composition.
Next, the shared tonality of the overhang and the pole indicate frame within the frame. Boom, composition.
The miller lite sign, compared with the bar fence the people are behind are used to suggest the idea of alcoholism keeping people "behind bars." Boom, visual metaphor.
The bushes create a frame for the subject of the light pole. Boom, composition.
The light pole seems to be looming at the people, it's watching this show that the players are performing. The light pole is both the audience and the subject. The light pole is us. The light pole isn't completely in view because we cannot completely see ourselves as we are. Boom, visual narrative.
The on-off switch on the light pole represents the nagging temptation of suicide, that we could all turn it off if we dared. Boom narrative. Boom, visual metaphor.
In front of the woman we see a wooden box inside a wooden box. Further echoing the picture within a picture, viewer within the viewed. Boom, visual echo.
The car to the left separated by the light pole from the people represents the inability to escape, despite the means being just out of our reach. Boom, visual narrative.
The doorway and the car being the same tonality, the only things that are pure white, indicate the two, pure, extreme choices the players have. Escape and complete entry. Yet they remained trapped in limbo, on the porch, in the light pole's gaze, under the glow of chemical escape (miller light sign). Boom, visual narrative.
The road between the pole and the players represents the distance we feel between the world and our isolation with all of humanity. The necessary distance between the onlooker and the looked upon. The idea that viewing is separation. Boom, visual narrative. Boom, visual metaphor.
The seeming technical shortcomings of the photo, the lack of focus, the hard lighting, the distance between the people, they're ultimately all a part of the story. They exude isolation, confusion, emptiness and a feeling of being trapped, even in the seemingly open space. When I view this image, I can feel the desperation of humanity. I understand the light pole because the light pole is me. I also fail to understand the light pole because the light pole is me and we can ultimately never truly understand ourselves.
A completely intelligible treatment of the subject matter, to use the OP's phraseology, wouldn't be appropriate to photograph. He needed to challenge our conventions in order to show us our station.