Saturday, January 28, 2023

Adrienne Rich: What Kind of Times Are These

Photo by Molly

What Kind of Times Are These

There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill
and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows
near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted
who disappeared into those shadows.
 
I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don’t be fooled
this isn’t a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here, 
our country moving closer to its own truth and dread, 
its own ways of making people disappear. 

I won’t tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods 
meeting the unmarked strip of light — 
ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise: 
I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.
 
And I won’t tell you where it is, so why do I tell you 
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these 
to have you listen at all, it’s necessary 
to talk about trees.
Adrienne Rich

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