Margaret Atwood - Half Hanged Mary lyrics
[Margaret Atwood - Half Hanged Mary lyrics]
("Half hanged Mary" was Mary Webster
Who was accused of witchcraft in the 1680's
In a Puritan town in Massachusetts and
Hanged from a tree - where
According to one of the
Several surviving accounts
She was left all night it
Is known that when she was cut
Down she was still alive
Since she lived for another fourteen years)
7pm
Rumor was loose in the air
Hunting for some neck to land on
I was milking the cow
The barn door open to the sunset
I didn't feel the aimed word hit
And go in like a soft bullet
I didn't feel the smashed flesh
Closing over it like water
Over a thrown stone
I was hanged for living alone
For having blue eyes and a sunburned skin
Tattered skirts, few buttons
A weedy farm in my own name
And a surefire cure for warts
Oh, yes, and breasts
And a sweet pear hidden in my body
Whenever there's talk of demons
These come in handy
9pm
The bonnets come to stare
The dark skirts also
The upturned faces in between
Mouths closed so tight they're lipless
I can see down into their eyeholes
And nostrils i can see their fear
You were my friend, you too
I cured your baby, Mrs
And flushed yours out of you
Non-wife, to save your life
Help me down? You don't dare
I might rub off on you
Like soot or gossip birds
Of a feather burn together
Though as a rule ravens are singular
In a gathering like this one
The safe place is the background
Pretending you can't dance
The safe stance pointing a finger
I understand you can't spare
Anything, a hand, a piece of bread, a shawl
Against the cold, a good word lord
Knows there isn't much
To go around you need it all
12 midnight
My throat is taut against the rope
Choking off words and air
I'm reduced to knotted muscle
Blood bulges in my skull
My clenched teeth hold it in
I bite down on despair
Death sit's on my shoulder like a crow
Waiting for my squeezed beet
Of a heart to burst so he can eat my eyes
Or like a judge
Muttering about sluts and punishment
And licking his lips or the crowd
Their own evil turned inside
Out like a glove, and me wearing it
Or like a dark angel
Whispering to me to be easy
On myself to breathe out finally
Trust me, he says, caressing me why suffer?
A temptation, to sink down
Into these definitions
To become a martyr in reverse
Or food, or trash
To give up my own words for myself
My own refusals to give up knowing
To give up pain to let go
3am
Wind seethes in the leaves around
Me the tree exude night
Birds night birds yell inside
My ears like stabbed hearts my heart
Stutters in my fluttering cloth
Body I dangle with strength
Going out of me the wind seethes
In my body tattering the words I clench
My fists hold No
Talisman or silver disc my lungs
Flail as if drowning I call
On you as witness I did
No crime I was born I have borne I
Bear I will be born this is
A crime I will not
Acknowledge leaves and wind hold onto me
I will not give in
Who was accused of witchcraft in the 1680's
In a Puritan town in Massachusetts and
Hanged from a tree - where
According to one of the
Several surviving accounts
She was left all night it
Is known that when she was cut
Down she was still alive
Since she lived for another fourteen years)
7pm
Rumor was loose in the air
Hunting for some neck to land on
I was milking the cow
The barn door open to the sunset
I didn't feel the aimed word hit
And go in like a soft bullet
I didn't feel the smashed flesh
Closing over it like water
Over a thrown stone
I was hanged for living alone
For having blue eyes and a sunburned skin
Tattered skirts, few buttons
A weedy farm in my own name
And a surefire cure for warts
Oh, yes, and breasts
And a sweet pear hidden in my body
Whenever there's talk of demons
These come in handy
9pm
The bonnets come to stare
The dark skirts also
The upturned faces in between
Mouths closed so tight they're lipless
I can see down into their eyeholes
And nostrils i can see their fear
You were my friend, you too
I cured your baby, Mrs
And flushed yours out of you
Non-wife, to save your life
Help me down? You don't dare
I might rub off on you
Like soot or gossip birds
Of a feather burn together
Though as a rule ravens are singular
In a gathering like this one
The safe place is the background
Pretending you can't dance
The safe stance pointing a finger
I understand you can't spare
Anything, a hand, a piece of bread, a shawl
Against the cold, a good word lord
Knows there isn't much
To go around you need it all
12 midnight
My throat is taut against the rope
Choking off words and air
I'm reduced to knotted muscle
Blood bulges in my skull
My clenched teeth hold it in
I bite down on despair
Death sit's on my shoulder like a crow
Waiting for my squeezed beet
Of a heart to burst so he can eat my eyes
Or like a judge
Muttering about sluts and punishment
And licking his lips or the crowd
Their own evil turned inside
Out like a glove, and me wearing it
Or like a dark angel
Whispering to me to be easy
On myself to breathe out finally
Trust me, he says, caressing me why suffer?
A temptation, to sink down
Into these definitions
To become a martyr in reverse
Or food, or trash
To give up my own words for myself
My own refusals to give up knowing
To give up pain to let go
3am
Wind seethes in the leaves around
Me the tree exude night
Birds night birds yell inside
My ears like stabbed hearts my heart
Stutters in my fluttering cloth
Body I dangle with strength
Going out of me the wind seethes
In my body tattering the words I clench
My fists hold No
Talisman or silver disc my lungs
Flail as if drowning I call
On you as witness I did
No crime I was born I have borne I
Bear I will be born this is
A crime I will not
Acknowledge leaves and wind hold onto me
I will not give in