Milk and Honey

The father appreciates a woman’s ability to give birth—it is miraculous. The speaker doesn’t understand the concept of unconditional love. The mother wants the speaker to treat herself well and hopes the speaker chooses a good man for a relationship. 

When the speaker falls in love, she becomes obsessed with different parts of her beloved, including his lips and the way he smells. She thinks he is the embodiment of her hopes. On their first date, he reads to her, which she finds ideal. The man wants to know her thoughts and feelings before becoming intimate, but he also warns her he can be hard to understand. Up for the challenge, the speaker imagines him touching her and wants a sexual encounter. The speaker desires to be complete but also would like a lover; she feels that she is in love for the first time.

As they become more intimate, the lover wonders out loud what makes the speaker tick and she touches him in response. This is not the first man she’d had sex with, but he makes her forget the others. The speaker emphasizes that the relationship is not just about sex—he has emotionally touched her as well. She compares herself to a fire turning into water.