They are Hostile Nations by Margaret Attwood—National Poetry Month 2023

Modern war--the innocent are only in the way.

The ongoing brutal war in Ukraine is only the most visible of dozens of armed conflicts across the globe—insurrections, rebellions, civil war, tribal battles, intractable conflicts spanning decades if not centuries.  Nuclear sabers are being rattled by Russia, China, North Korea, Israel, and, yes, even the United States.  The nagging Cassandras at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have reset the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to oblivion it has ever been.  Peace is not only not in hand, it seems increasingly impossible.

Margaret Atwood in the 1970's.

Even back in the 1970’s Canadian Margaret Atwood despaired.  The feminist poet, novelist, cultural critic is best known for her frightening dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. 

They are Hostile Nations

i

 

In view of the fading animals

the proliferation of sewers and fears   

the sea clogging, the air

nearing extinction

 

we should be kind, we should

take warning, we should forgive each other

 

Instead we are opposite, we   

touch as though attacking,

 

the gifts we bring

even in good faith maybe   

warp in our hands to

implements, to manoeuvre

 

ii

 

Put down the target of me

you guard inside your binoculars,   

in turn I will surrender

 

this aerial photograph   

(your vulnerable

sections marked in red)   

I have found so useful

 

See, we are alone in

the dormant field, the snow

that cannot be eaten or captured

 

iii

 

Here there are no armies   

here there is no money

 

It is cold and getting colder,

 

We need each others’

breathing, warmth, surviving   

is the only war

we can afford, stay

 

walking with me, there is almost   

time / if we can only   

make it as far as

 

the (possibly) last summer

 

—Margaret  Atwood

 

They are Hostile Nations from Selected Poems 1965-1975. Copyright © 1974, 1976 by Margaret Atwood.