After There Was Nothing There Was a Woman
Whose face had reached her mirror Via the vulture’s gullet And the droppings of the wild dog, and she remembers it Massaging her brow with cream Whose breasts had come about By long toil of earthworms After many failures, but they were here now And she protected them with silk Her bones Lay as they did because they could not escape anything They hung as it were in space The targets of every bombardment She had found her belly In a clockwork pool, wound by the winding and unwinding sea. First it was her toy, then she found its use And curtained it with a flowered skirt. It made her eyes shine. She could see the excited wind flexing on the face of the water She looked at the grass trembling among the worn stones Having about as much comprehension as a lamb Who stares round at everything simultaneously With ant-like head and soldierly bearing She had made it out but only just, just…
After There Was Nothing There Was a Woman - meaning Summary
Humanity Barely Emerging
The poem presents a woman as a precarious product of natural processes, death, and chance. Her face, body, and awareness seem assembled from scavenging animals, earthworms, sea, and matter under attack. Ordinary acts of self-care and dress briefly create dignity, but her understanding remains limited and vulnerable. The final image suggests that human identity has only narrowly emerged from an indifferent, violent world.
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