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Studies of a Fox, a Barn Owl, a Peahen, and the Head of a Young Man, by Jacques-Laurent Agasse
Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Owl Song

I am the heart of a murdered woman
who took the wrong way home
who was strangled in a vacant lot and not buried
who was shot with care beneath a tree
who was mutilated by a crisp knife.
There are many of us.
 
I grew feathers and tore my way out of her;
I am shaped like a feathered heart.
My mouth is a chisel, my hands
the crimes done by hands.
 
I sit in the forest talking of death
which is monotonous:
though there are many ways of dying
there is only one death song,
the colour of mist:
it says   Why   Why
 
I do not want revenge, I do not want expiation,
I only want to ask someone
how I was lost,
how I was lost
 
I am the lost heart of a murderer
who has not yet killed,
who does not yet know he wishes
to kill; who is still the same
as the others
 
I am looking for him,
he will have answers for me,
he will watch his step, he will be
cautious and violent, my claws
will grow through his hands
and become claws, he will not be caught.

#CanadianWriters

4
Preferido o celebrado por...
Y. J. Hall Bruno G. Diana Flint Alexandre Alam
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