July 1, 2002
A Little Offering
Based on "True Stories" by Margaret Atwood
True Stories
by Margaret Atwood
The facts of this world seen
clearly
are seen through tears;
why tell me then
there is something wrong with my eyes?
To see clearly and without
flinching,
without turning away,
this is agony, the eyes taped open
two inches from the sun
What is it you see then?
Is it a bad dream, a hallucination?
Is it a vision
What is it you hear?
The razor across the eyeball
is a detail from an old film.
It is also a truth.
Witness is what you must bear.
In the End
by Viviane Lerner
While I'm sitting in this Cafe
pondering how I'll ever get a job
(lost the last one three months ago)
the waiter's eyes
come to me
so black with pain
as to make me shiver
He tells me
his older brother
got killed in Jerusalem
last week
Palestinians sure die young
nowadays
As tears rise to my eyes
he whispers to me
while pouring coffee in my cup
but the people always win
in the end
I trust it to be true
that only people's hearts be worth fighting for
that only people's hearts can ever win
We smile
1991