Ring (Melissa Stein)

I like this poem by Melissa Stein.

It starts and I think I'm in for a modern-sounding nature poem. Ok, but I don't really care - some neat sounds, but I'm not enthralled. But then it loops back to the title with its smash of a last line and I'm hooked. I read the thing again.

I see the hints of control she laid. The wanting to control the sun, the stars. That she focuses on partnered things - sun and night, or sun and stars, the sky and a peak, a lake and its bank.

It seems a moment of pride - her announcing the removal of the wedding ring. But because it was preceded by examples of couples in nature it seems that there might be a sense of shame and unnaturalness to the act.

Favorite line: "the night / when it curved, / when it swayed"

the night
when it curved,
when it swayed