We are hard by Margaret Atwood
If I love you — the same question I keep asking myself, over and over.
We are hard
Margaret Atwoodi
We are hard on each other
and call it honesty,
choosing our jagged truths
with care and aiming them across
the neutral table.The things we say are
true; it is our crooked
aim, our choices
turn them criminal.ii
Of course your lies
are more amusing:
you make them new each time.Your truths, painful and boring
repeat themselves over & over
perhaps because you own
so few of themiii
A truth should exist,
it should not be used
like this. If I love youis that a fact or a weapon?
iv
Does the body lie
moving like this, are these
touches, hairs, wet
soft marble my tongue runs over
lies you are telling me?Your body is not a word,
it does not lie or
speak truth either.It is only
here or not here.
—
From Selected Poems (1965-1975) by Margaret Atwood, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987.
trishnasenapaty
She seems to say with such ease what’s been on one’s mind. Love your blog, your selection 🙂
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