Poetry Friday: Margaret Atwood

I've always liked "The Loneliness of the Military Historian," by Margaret Atwood, and this week it seems particularly appropriate. I'm quoting a stanza from the middle of the poem. You can find it in its entirity here at Poetry Foundation.org.

Instead of this, I tell
what I hope will pass as truth.
A blunt thing, not lovely.
The truth is seldom welcome,
especially at dinner,
though I am good at what I do.
My trade is courage and atrocities.
I look at them and do not condemn.
I write things down the way they happened,
as near as can be remembered.
I don’t ask why, because it is mostly the same.
Wars happen because the ones who start them
think they can win.

The lovely Sara Lewis Holmes is on this week's roundup. Thanks, Sara! (Sara has a great post on Poetry circles this week. Don't miss it!)