After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

Kinnell, Galway

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Apr-17-2001

Summary

No loud noise will wake the author's son ("For I can snore like a bullhorn . . . "), but the "stifled come-cry" of his parents' making love brings him to their bedroom, where he "flops down between us . . . his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child." The parents look at one another and "touch arms across his little, startlingly muscled body."

Commentary

This 23 line poem speaks gently of love--both parental and sexual love--and the ties that bind us.

Primary Source

Mortal Acts, Mortal Words

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin

Place Published

Boston

Edition

1980