testimony:the subway
hurtling to Brooklyn
her head on her knees
asleep or drugged
la via del tren subterraneo
es peligrosa
many sleep
the whole way
others sit
staring holes of fire into the air
others plan rebellion:
night after night
awake in prison, my mind
licked at the mattress like a flame
till the cellblock went up roaring
Thoreau setting fire to the woods
Every act of becoming conscious
(it says here in this book)
is an unnatural act."
(Adrienne Rich, from The Phenomenology of Anger, 1972)
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