You Can Have It

“Of Love and Other Disasters” by Philip Levine (2007)

Like “You Can Have It,” this is a narrative poem that concerns blue-collar individuals, in this case a woman and a man: a divorced “punch-press operator from Flint” (Line 1), another auto city in Michigan; and an “assembler from West Virginia” (Line 2). The woman’s factory job has given her hands “deep lines” (Line 22), but the man sees instead them as “slender and fine” (Lines 29). When she “wipe[s] something off / above his left cheekbone” (Line 35-36), he believes a more intimate connection with her could be possible. Like “You Can Have It,” the poem deals with the difficulties of being a laborer and the need for second chances, as well as the importance of emotional connection.

“What Work Is” by Philip Levine (1991)

This is the titular poem from What Work Is. Like “You Can Have It” this poem features the speaker’s relationship with his brother. Standing in a line for employment, the speaker thinks he sees his brother but is mistaken. In reality, the brother, like the one in “You Can Have It,” is “sleep[ing] off a miserable night shift” (Line 27).