Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale - Chapter 1 lyrics

We slept in what had once been
The gymnasium the floor was
Of varnished wood, with stripes and
Circles painted on it
For the games that were formerly played
There the hoops for the basketball
Nets were still in place
Though the nets were
Gone a balcony ran around the room, for the
Spectators, and I thought I could smell
Faintly like
An afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat
Shot
Through with the sweet taint of chewing gum
And perfume from the watching girls
Felt-skirted as I knew from pictures
Later in mini-skirts
Then pants, then in one earring
Spiky green-streaked hair dances would have
Been held there the music lingered
A palimpsest of unheard
Sound, style upon style, an
Undercurrent of drums
A forlorn wail, garlands made
Of tissue paper flowers
Cardboard devils, a revolving
Ball of mirrors
Powdering the dancers with a snow of light

There was old sex in the
Room and loneliness, and expectation, of
Something without a shape or name
I remember that yearning
For something that was always about to happen
And was never the same as the hands
That were on us there and then
In the small of the back, or
Out back, in the parking lot
Or in the television room with
The sound turned down
And only the pictures flickering
Over lifting flesh

We yearned for the future how
Did we learn it
That talent for insatiability? It
Was in the air and it was
Still in the air, an afterthought
As we tried to sleep, in the army cots that
Had been set up in rows, with spaces between
So we could not talk we had flannelette
Sheets, like children's, and
Army-issue blankets
Old ones that still said us we
Folded our clothes neatly and laid
Them on the stools at the ends
Of the beds the lights
Were turned down but not out aunt
Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled they
Had electric cattle prods slung on
Thongs from their leather belts

No guns though
Even they could not be trusted
With guns guns were for the guards
Specially picked from the Angels the
Guards weren't allowed inside the
Building except when called, and we
Weren't allowed out, except for
Our walks, twice daily
Two by two around the football field
Which was enclosed now by
A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire
The Angels stood outside it with
Their backs to us they were
Objects of fear to us, but of something
Else as well if only they would look
If only we could talk to
Them something could be
Exchanged, we thought
Some deal made, some trade-off
We still had our bodies that was our fantasy

We learned to whisper almost without sound
In the semi darkness we
Could stretch out our arms, when
The Aunts weren't looking
And touch each other's
Hands across space we learned to lip-read
Our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways
Watching each other's mouths in
This way we exchanged names
From bed to bed:

Alma janine dolores moira june