Quotes From "Diving Into The Wreck" By Adrienne Rich

I don't trust them but I'm learning to use them. Adrienne Rich

The StrangerLooking as I’ve looked before, straight down the heartof the street to the riverwalking the rivers of the avenuesfeeling the shudder of the caves beneath the asphaltwatching the lights turn on in the towerswalking as I’ve walked beforelike a man, like a woman, in the citymy visionary anger cleansing my sightand the detailed perceptions of mercyflowering from that angerif I come into a room out of the sharp misty lightand hear them talking a dead languageif they ask me my identitywhat can I say but I am the androgyne I am the living mind you fail to describein your dead languagethe lost noun, the verb survivingonly in the infinitivethe letters of my name are written under the lidsof the newborn child . Adrienne Rich

I came to explore the wreck. / The words are purposes. / The words are maps. / I came to see the damage that was done / and the treasures that prevail. Adrienne Rich

There is a cop who is both prowler and father:he comes from your block, grew up with your brothers, had certain ideals. You hardly know him in his boots and silver badge, on horseback, one hand touching his gun. You hardly know him but you have to get to know him:he has access to machinery that could kill you. He and his stallion clop like warlords among the trash, his ideals stand in the air, a frozen cloudfrom between his unsmiling lips. And so, when the time comes, you have to turn to him, the maniac’s sperm still greasing your thighs, your mind whirling like crazy. You have to confessto him, you are guilty of the crimeof having been forced. And you see his blue eyes, the blue eyes of all the familywhom you used to know, grow narrow and glisten, his hand types out the detailsand he wants them allbut the hysteria in your voice pleases him best. You hardly know him but now he thinks he knows you:he has taken down you worst momenton a machine and filed it in a file. He knows, or thinks he knows, how much you imagined;he knows, or thinks he knows, what you secretly wanted. He has access to machinery that could get you put away;and if, in the sickening light of the precinct, and if, in the sickening light of the precinct, your details sound like a portrait of your confessor, will you swallow, will you deny them, will you lie your way home?. Adrienne Rich