Habitation by Margaret Atwood
Something to think about while I go out for errands today.
Habitation
Margaret AtwoodMarriage is not
a house or even a tentit is before that, and colder:
The edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert
the unpainted stairs
at the back where we squat
outside, eating popcornwhere painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this farwe are learning to make fire
—
From Selected Poems (1965-1975) by Margaret Atwood, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987.