The womb
The poet begins by focusing on the womb, a symbol of fertility and the potential for life.
Rattles its pod, the moon
The womb is described as making a rattling sound, suggesting emptiness and infertility. The moon’s discharge may symbolize failed attempts at conception.
Discharges itself from the tree with nowhere to go.
The moon, often associated with femininity, is released from a tree but lands in a place where it can’t grow. This could represent unfulfilled potential for motherhood.
My landscape is a hand with no lines,
The speaker’s personal landscape, symbolized by her hand, lacks the lines that typically indicate a person’s future. This suggests a sense of directionlessness or uncertainty.
The roads bunched to a knot,
The paths in the speaker’s life have gathered into a knot, indicating a complex and tangled situation.
The knot myself,
The knot is a representation of the speaker, suggesting that her life has become entangled and complicated.
Myself the rose you achieve—-
The speaker metaphorically becomes the achieved rose, possibly representing a distorted or unfulfilled version of what society views as a woman’s accomplishment in motherhood.
This body,
The speaker refers to her physical self, emphasizing the tangible and visceral nature of her experience.
This ivory
The term “ivory” may symbolize purity or the whiteness of infertility, highlighting the sterility of the speaker’s situation.
Ungodly as a child’s shriek.
The speaker compares her body to something “ungodly,” suggesting a lack of divine blessing. The child’s shriek emphasizes the unsettling and unnatural nature of her infertility.
Spiderlike, I spin mirrors,
The speaker describes herself as spiderlike, possibly alluding to the act of weaving a web of illusions or reflections. Spinning mirrors could represent self-reflection or the creation of an image.
Loyal to my image,
The mirrors are loyal to the speaker’s image, reinforcing the idea of self-reflection and possibly a fixation on her own perceived identity.
Uttering nothing but blood—-
The mirrors produce only blood, a powerful image that may represent the emotional and physical pain associated with infertility.
Taste it, dark red!
The speaker urges to taste the dark red blood, emphasizing the vivid and intense experience of her emotions.
And my forest
The reference to a forest may symbolize the tangled and complex emotions within the speaker.
My funeral,
The forest becomes a metaphor for the speaker’s funeral, indicating a symbolic death or loss associated with her infertility.
And this hill and this
The poem shifts to describe a hill, suggesting a raised and prominent feature in the speaker’s emotional landscape.
Gleaming with the mouths of corpses.
The hill is described as gleaming with the mouths of corpses, evoking a haunting image of unspoken words or unfulfilled potential represented by the dead.
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