Summary

In “Gramercy,” the speaker attempts to recall the last time she slept with her husband. She remembers having sex in the car at a rest stop, after he begrudgingly accepts her erotic advances. The speaker interprets his small gesture of resting a hand on her back as his request for pardon, “a formal petition for reprieve” (9).

In “Telling My Mother,” the speaker visits her childhood coastal home, gently informing her mother of her impending separation. Her aging mother reacts with indignance at the news. Though she had initially feared returning to her childhood origin, surrendering to a lonely life with her mother, she discovers “it’s just home,” arriving at a sense of acceptance (10).

In “Silence, with Two Texts,” the speaker compares and contrasts two forms of her husband’s silence: the first, his reticence when physically present, and the second, the literal...