On the sex-o-meter scale, this sonnet is scrotum-shrivelling. I read the doggy-style stuff as a great metaphor for the end of the relationship, the back-side, the rear view, helping the N put the whole thing to bed. The poem actually ‘flips’ the reader over between old and new, beginnings and ends, in its attempt to find conclusion. In fact, I love the way it creates the feeling of being flipped over as N flips through the different ways of reading his behaviour, trying to draw a conclusion. It’s not just the style of sex; it’s her sense that he does not see her, his indifference, his lack of commitment, his absence in the relationship. N is saying ‘you are a shallow, predictable arse-hole’. It’s her way of getting some power back. The controlled, vindictive violence implicit in the couplet is hilarious.
It’s a postcoital postmortem, and a delicious slice of subjectivity. The N is angry and hurt, betrayed, and coping by getting her own back. This is how it often feels, in the end.(!) The sonnet, however, is funny and clever. That’s the genius of this one – you get both these readings at once. It’s complicated, layered, a sardonic sonnet – love it!
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