Love and Physicality

Foremost in Vuong’s “Devotion” is the experience of radical physicality. Through the highly personalized first person “I,” he gives highly detailed imagery of physical intimacy with another man. For example, “the year begins / with my knees / scraping hardwood, / another man leaving / into my throat,” and later, “I press mine [my tongue] / to the navel’s familiar / whorl, molasses threads / descending toward / devotion & there’s nothing / more holy than holding / a man’s heartbeat between / your teeth, sharpened / with too much / air” (1-5, 13-22). Thus, in Vuong’s poem, loving “devotion” is very much integrated into the experience of sexual and physical intimacy. At the same time, Vuong avoids fetishizing this loving relationship between two men in “Devotion.” Sex is more than a transaction, the simple act of giving and receiving in return for pleasure. Rather, he draws attention to the emotional vulnerability and...