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Rat Song

By Margaret Atwood b. 1939 Margaret Atwood

When you hear me singing

you get the rifle down

and the flashlight, aiming for my brain,

but you always miss

and when you set out the poison

I piss on it

to warn the others.

You think: That one’s too clever,

she’s dangerous, because

I don’t stick around to be slaughtered

and you think I’m ugly too

despite my fur and pretty teeth

and my six nipples and snake tail.

All I want is love, you stupid

humanist. See if you can.

Right, I’m a parasite, I live off your

leavings, gristle and rancid fat,

I take without asking

and make nests in your cupboards

out of your suits and underwear.

You’d do the same if you could,

if you could afford to share

my crystal hatreds.

It’s your throat I want, my mate

trapped in your throat.

Though you try to drown him

with your greasy person voice,

he is hiding / between your syllables

I can hear him singing.

Margaret Atwood, “Rat Song” from Selected Poems 1965-1975. Copyright © 1974, 1976 by Margaret Atwood. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Source: Poetry (February 1974).

Biography

Regarded as one of Canada’s finest living writers, Margaret Atwood is a poet, novelist, story writer, essayist, and environmental activist. Her books have received critical acclaim in the United States, Europe, and her native Canada, and she has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General’s Award, twice. Atwood’s critical popularity is matched by her . . .

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