The Speaker

Speakers should not be equated with poets, though speakers can encompass a particular mood, perspective, or experience belonging to the poet. Danusha Laméris often shares in interviews that she delves into her own life for material to write about. For example, the speaker in "Leg" talks about her brother's death, which was a major event in Laméris's life and that she often includes in her poems. Overall, the speaker in "Leg" meditates on life, death, and relationships. She comes to identify not just with other women, but with animals like the deer and the mountain lion.

Dion

The context for the poem is a walk that the speaker takes with someone named Dion in a field near the speaker's house. Though the speaker does not immediately name the relationship between herself and Dion, the familiar way she refers to Dion implies that they are close...