Brooks, Gwendolyn 1977
Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.
My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,
Are gone from the house.
My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite
And night is night.
– Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Sunset of the City”
Read this interview with Gwendolyn Brooks from Modern American Poetry:
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/interviews.htm
Of people: These
are all soft animals.
Not one is made of steel.
That
is what he thought.
He felt that they would feel.
If not next day, next Monday.
And he smiled.
– Gwendolyn Brooks, “Henry Rago”
Watch an interview with Gwendolyn Brooks: