Now Tell Us Who’s Been Cruel to You

Which would be harder
To excavate—hurt
Done to you or hurt

You did? Don’t answer.
Literature will
Answer this for you—

Tally all the poems
And memoirs brimming
Full of hurt endured.

How many focus
On what the writer,
As hurt-doer, did?

Don’t answer. You know.
If you answer, you
Might have to confess.