From quilting (1991), "peeping tom" Summary

This poem addresses a man's natural inclination for homosexuality, or at least transgendering. When he was a little boy, the man looked through a window to see a man dress himself as a woman in "our room," inferring that the transformation happened in the poet's home. This was powerful for him. It spoke to his central desire. Now that he is a man, he remembers that image and it is so compelling that he does not desire his "natural wife," but rather that experience of a man becoming another being, a woman.

From quilting (1991), "peeping tom" Analysis

This poem addresses, with poignant, almost unbearably powerful imagery, a man's inclination that goes outside the usual man/woman relationship. The man has always wished to be a woman, and one day as a youth he...