Friday, April 15, 2011

After Love by Maxine Kumin

Afterwards, the compromise.
Bodies resume their boundaries.

These legs, for instance, mine.
Your arms take you back in.

Spoons of our fingers, lips
admit their ownership.

The bedding yawns, a door
blows aimlessly ajar

and overhead, a plane
singsongs, coming down.

Nothing is changed, except
there was a moment when

the wolf, the mongering wolf
who stands outside the self

lay lightly down, and slept.


Kumin uses a lot of personification in this poem: "The bedding yawns", "lips admit their ownership", "a plane singsongs" to show the feeling of life and happiness experienced after love. Everything is coming alive in the room, and the lovers' bodies seem to be doing things on their own without control, making them seem human themselves.

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