That Country

By Grace Paley 1922–2007 Grace Paley

This is about the women of that country

Sometimes they spoke in slogans

They said

We patch the roads as we patch our sweetheart’s trousers

The heart will stop but not the transport

They said

We have ensured production even near bomb craters

Children let your voices sing higher than the explosions

of the bombs

They said

We have important tasks to teach the children

that the people are the collective masters

to bear hardship

to instill love in the family

to guide the good health of the children (they must

wear clothing according to climate)

They said

Once men beat their wives

now they may not

Once a poor family sold its daughter to a rich old man

now the young may love one another

They said

Once we planted our rice any old way

now we plant the young shoots in straight rows

so the imperialist pilot can see how steady our

hands are

In the evening we walked along the shores of the Lake

of the Restored Sword

I said is it true? we are sisters?

They said Yes, we are of one family

Grace Paley, “That Country” from Begin Again: The Collected Poems of Grace Paley. Copyright © 1999 by Grace Paley. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, www.fsgbooks.com. All rights reserved. Caution: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Source: Begin Again: The Collected Poems of Grace Paley (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2000)

Biography

With her first two books of short stories, Grace Paley established her niche in the world of letters. Her distinctive voice and verbal gifts have captured the hearts of critics who praise her vision as well as her style. In short and sometimes plotless tales, she plumbs the lives of working-class New Yorkers, mapping out what New York Review of Books contributing critic Michael Wood called "a whole small country of damaged, . . .

Continue reading this biography