After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

 

Galway Kinnell

 

 

For[hjs1]  I can snore like a bullhorn

 

or play loud music

 

or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman

 

and Fergus [hjs2] will only sink deeper

 

into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash,

5

but [hjs3] let there be that heavy breathing

 

or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house

 

and he will wrench himself awake

 

and make for it on the run--as now, we lie together,

 

after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies,

10

familiar touch of the long-married,

 

and he appears--in his baseball pajamas, it happens,

 

the neck opening so small

 

he has to screw them on, which [hjs4] one day may make him wonder

 

about the mental capacity of baseball players--

15

and says, "Are you loving and snuggling?  May I join?"

 

He flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to sleep,

 

his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child[hjs5] .

 

 

 

In the half darkness we look at each other

 

and smile

20

and touch arms across his little, startlingly [hjs6] muscled body--

 

this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making,

 

sleeper only the mortal [hjs7] sounds can sing awake,

 

this blessing love gives again into our arms.

 

 

 

1980

 

 [hjs1]Funny way to start.  As though starting in the middle of a story or conversation?

 [hjs2]I think Fergus is a name from Irish folklore.  Look up story?  Poet seems to be Irish--Galway is a county in Ireland, I think.  Also, explains line 3.

 [hjs3]I want to break this up into parts since the first sentence is so long, ending in "May I join?"--shown by next line starting with capital letter in "He".  "For" seems to set up the normal--the kid can sleep through lots of noise.  "But" signals the special case = "but IF" they are making love.  "And he" signals the outcome--kid comes running.

 [hjs4]I don't get why this is so long and off the topic

 [hjs5]Special language?  Is this an Irishism?

 

 [hjs6]??

 [hjs7]This seems to sound "elevated" and "significant" here and a bit dream-like, so I'd expect him to say "immortal", but since he's talking about sex/love-making he uses "mortal."  Associations to think about--"mortal" often has negative, limiting connotations but here seems positive.  People have sex to reproduce BECAUSE they are mortal, will die.  I like the way that sex stays physical here, but takes on a spiritual quality and clearly loving, beyond just getting it on for fun.