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Annotated by:
- Aull, Felice
- Date of entry: Jan-11-1999
Summary
The narrator is addressing her image in the mirror. "you . . . got a geography / of your own." The speaker takes pride in that body because it is not easily fathomed: "somebody need directions / to move around you." That body makes itself known. The concluding lines tell the "mister" who has presumed to handle that body that he "got his hands on / some / damn / body!"
Primary Source
good woman: poems and a memoir, 1969-1980
Publisher
BOA
Publisher
BOA
Place Published
Brockport, N.Y.
Place Published
Brockport, N.Y.
Edition
1987
Edition
1987
Commentary
Written in the vernacular, the poem is a lively, humorous acknowledgment of girth and an assertion of self. It reminds us that we know our appearance only as an image in the mirror. The woman narrator is conscious of how her body projects itself to men. Perhaps her final defiance reflects her ambivalence toward this awareness. The poem is a companion piece to homage to my hips (see this database).