For The Record

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

The clouds and the stars didn’t wage this war

the brooks gave no information

if the mountain spewed stones of fire into the river

it was not taking sides

the raindrop faintly swaying under the leaf

had no political opinions

and if here or there a house

filled with backed-up raw sewage

or poisoned those who lived there

with slow fumes, over years

the houses were not at war

nor did the tinned-up buildings

intend to refuse shelter

to homeless old women and roaming children

they had no policy to keep them roaming

or dying, no, the cities were not the problem

the bridges were non-partisan

the freeways burned, but not with hatred

Even the miles of barbed-wire

stretched around crouching temporary huts

designed to keep the unwanted

at a safe distance, out of sight

even the boards that had to absorb

year upon year, so many human sounds

so many depths of vomit, tears

slow-soaking blood

had not offered themselves for this

The trees didn’t volunteer to be cut into boards

nor the thorns for tearing flesh

Look around at all of it

and ask whose signature

is stamped on the orders, traced

in the corner of the building plans

Ask where the illiterate, big-bellied

women were, the drunks and crazies,

the ones you fear most of all: ask where you were.

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Poems in English 

• The Disquieting Muses by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Dispossessed by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Detective by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Death Of Myth-Making by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Dead by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Couriers by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Courage Of Shutting-Up by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Companionable Ills by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Colossus by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Burnt-Out Spa by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Bull Of Bendylaw by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Beggars by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Beekeeper’s Daughter by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Beast by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Babysitters by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Arrival Of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• The Applicant by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Temper Of Time by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Tale Of A Tub by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

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