The name of that country is lonesome
by Marge Piercy
We go to meet our favorite programs
the way we might have met a lover,
the mixture of the familiar routine
and the unexpected revelation.
We can buy love at the shelter
if we get there before they have
executed it for being unwanted,
its fur cooling in the garbage.
It becomes more and more unusual
to be invited to dinner;
fast food is the family feast.
Who can be bothered with friends?
They have needs, you have to remember
their birthdays, they want to talk
when you’re just too tired.
Leave the answering machine on.
No one comes to the door any longer.
We would be scared.
That’s why we have an alarm.
That’s why we keep the gun loaded.
Drive in food, drive in teller,
drive by shooting, stay in the car.
Talk only to the television set.
It tells you just what to buy
so you won’t feel lonely
any longer, so you won’t feel
inadequate, bored, so you can
almost imagine yourself alive.
The well preserved man
He was dug up from a bog
where the acid tanned him
like a good leather workboot.
He is complete, teeth, elbows,
toenails and stomach, penis,
the last meal he was fed.
Sacrificed to a god or goddess
for fertility, good weather,
an end to a plague, who knows?
Only he was fed and then killed,
as I began to realize as you
ordered the expensive wine,
urged lobster or steak, you
whose eyes always toted the bill,
I was to be terminated that night.
I could not eat my last meal.
I kept running to the ladies room.
All I could do was drink and try,
try not to weep at the table.
I was green as May leaves on the maple.
I was new as a never folded dollar,
a child who didn't know how the old
story always ended. Sacrificed
to a woman with more to offer up,
the new May queen, lady of prominent
family, like the bog man I was
strangled with little bruising.
I lay in my bed with my arms folded
believing my life had bled out.
How astonished I was to survive,
to find I was intact and hungry.
All that happened was I knew the story
now and I grew long nails and teeth.
Copyright 1998, Middlemarsh, Inc.
from Early Grrrl
A Leapfrog Press Paperback Original
ISBN 0-9654578-6-9 Available Now
http://www.margepiercy.com/
by Marge Piercy
We go to meet our favorite programs
the way we might have met a lover,
the mixture of the familiar routine
and the unexpected revelation.
We can buy love at the shelter
if we get there before they have
executed it for being unwanted,
its fur cooling in the garbage.
It becomes more and more unusual
to be invited to dinner;
fast food is the family feast.
Who can be bothered with friends?
They have needs, you have to remember
their birthdays, they want to talk
when you’re just too tired.
Leave the answering machine on.
No one comes to the door any longer.
We would be scared.
That’s why we have an alarm.
That’s why we keep the gun loaded.
Drive in food, drive in teller,
drive by shooting, stay in the car.
Talk only to the television set.
It tells you just what to buy
so you won’t feel lonely
any longer, so you won’t feel
inadequate, bored, so you can
almost imagine yourself alive.
The well preserved man
He was dug up from a bog
where the acid tanned him
like a good leather workboot.
He is complete, teeth, elbows,
toenails and stomach, penis,
the last meal he was fed.
Sacrificed to a god or goddess
for fertility, good weather,
an end to a plague, who knows?
Only he was fed and then killed,
as I began to realize as you
ordered the expensive wine,
urged lobster or steak, you
whose eyes always toted the bill,
I was to be terminated that night.
I could not eat my last meal.
I kept running to the ladies room.
All I could do was drink and try,
try not to weep at the table.
I was green as May leaves on the maple.
I was new as a never folded dollar,
a child who didn't know how the old
story always ended. Sacrificed
to a woman with more to offer up,
the new May queen, lady of prominent
family, like the bog man I was
strangled with little bruising.
I lay in my bed with my arms folded
believing my life had bled out.
How astonished I was to survive,
to find I was intact and hungry.
All that happened was I knew the story
now and I grew long nails and teeth.
Copyright 1998, Middlemarsh, Inc.
from Early Grrrl
A Leapfrog Press Paperback Original
ISBN 0-9654578-6-9 Available Now
http://www.margepiercy.com/