Poem #465

I heard a fly buzz, when I died
the stillness in the room
was like the stillness in the .sir
between the Heaves of Storm

The eyes around had wrung them dry
and breaths were gathering firm
for that last onset when the king
be witnessed in the room

I willed. my keepsakes signed away
what portion of me be
assignable and then it was
there interposed a fly

with blue uncertain stumbling buzz
between the light and me
and then the windows failed and then
I could not see to see



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HWL's Comment

Date of writing: Jun 01, 1980

Comment: What is described in this poem, quite certainly is an orgasm. The description has earmarks that could easily make it pre-Kate, indeed even the first one in heterosexual intercourse in her experience, in which case it would almost certainly have been a mutual. But aside of the difficulty to account for such an early poem in its place in booklet 84 of 1864, there are other earmarks in the symbolization of this poem which force one to reconsider such a hasty conclusion. I should not need to go into a detailed discussion of this symbolization, and I will not. Let me just state briefly and to the point: the orgasm she describes is one she experienced in anal coitus. The “keepsakes” she assigned in it I will also leave to the imagination of the reader, to decide for himself.



Symbols

blue, death, eye, fail, firm, fly, king, light, room, see, still, window, witness

Categories

Fascicle 84, HWL Packet A