Gylys often shows men as self-deluded fools for love, incapable of clearly stating what they feel. Her voice is hard, witty, amused at folly and pretense. To this male reader, it's somewhat disconcerting to find a woman coming this close to the bone. And yet we feel that this poet likes men at the same time as she sees through them. There's something good in every one she's found.
Sex is a frequent topic, with frank language.
There's a lusty edge that's closer to the way most people talk and joke about sex than we usually find in poetry, unless you go back to Chaucer and Bocaccio. Villanelles and sestinas are ancient, some would say antique, forms in which words and lines repeat according to strict rules. I felt I needed to master the form, and after awhile I started to think in that form. He saw this woman at the skating rink, watching their sons play hockey from the stands. He fought the urge to ask her for a drink.