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Literature Annotations

Kinnell, Galway After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

	On-Line Audio
Genre	Poem
Keywords	Children, Family Relationships, Love, Parenthood, Sexuality
Summary	No loud noise will wake the author's son ("For I can snore like a bullhorn . . . "), but the "stifled come-cry" of his parents' making love brings him to their bedroom, where he "flops down between us . . . his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child." The parents look at one another and "touch arms across his little, startlingly muscled body."
Commentary	This 23 line poem speaks gently of love--both parental and sexual love--and the ties that bind us.
Source	Mortal Acts, Mortal Words
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Edition	1980
Place Published	Boston
Alternate Source	The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart
Alternate Publisher	Harper Collins
Alternate Edition	1992
Alternate Editors	Robert Bly, James Hillman, & Michael Meade
Place Published	New York
Annotated by	Coulehan, Jack
Date of Entry	01/17/95
Last Revised	04/17/01