New Mother EMS

Sharon Olds' "New Mother" is about a woman who has just given birth, and who is describing a sexual encounter with her husband. The woman is clearly not in a position of power. She describes the experience with lines like "you cornered me in the spare room", and "my milk undid its / burning slip-knot through my nipples". She seems to be at the mercy of her man. At his mercy, she describes how her vagina "had been torn easily as cloth by the / crown of her head", and other ways that her vagina has been hurt through the childbirth. This makes her "lay in fear and blood and milk", a state of hopelessness. While she does this, the man is kissing her, and "you hung over me, / over the nest of the stitches, over the / splitting and tearing." This is a really touching part, because it is describing how the man, who is in a position of power, is simply hanging over her, not trying for sex. His penis is "dry and big", meaning it is erect but has not been inside of her. This is touching. She describes it as "someone who / finds a wounded animal in the woods / and stays with it, not leaving its side / until it is whol, until it can run again."