Summary

In “While He Told Me,” the opening poem of the collection, the speaker describes a conversation with her husband in which he shares a piece of vital information with her. She withholds the contents of his confession from the reader, instead enumerating the details of the setting, their bedroom, using bodily imagery (including “the shower curtain’s terrible membrane” and “the face / of the bedside clock”). Later in the poem, the speaker and her husband go to sleep, and she has disturbing dreams. The husband wakes first, exits the room, and the speaker follows, which introduces themes of abandonment and attachment. The speaker studies two tulips in a vase ornamented with an image of a shepherd.

In “Unspeakable,” the speaker reflects on the lost love and former intimacy with her “almost-no-longer husband,” addressing themes of recognition, as she no longer feels visible or...