Poetry Appearing in Poetry In Motion® New York

First Memory

Louise Gluck

Long ago, I was wounded. I lived
to revenge myself
against my father, not
for what he was—
for what I was: from the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was loved.
It meant I loved.

* * *

"First Memory" from Ararat by Louise Glück. Copyright © 1990. Reprinted with the permission of The Ecco Press.

 

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