Poem 3: The Friend by Marge Piercy

THE FRIEND

We sat across the table. he said, cut off your hands. they are always poking at things. they might touch me. I said yes. Food grew cold on the table. he said, burn your body. it is not clean and smells like sex. it rubs my mind sore. I said yes. I love you, I said. That's very nice, he said I like to be loved, that makes me happy. Have you cut off your hands yet?  Analysis        In the first stanza, Piercy writes, "cut off of your hands" as a command from the supposed 'friend'.  This hyperbole accentuates how her hands are "always poking at things", and how he doesn't like it. He doesn't want the hands to touch him. She agrees to cut off her hands, which shows that she is insecure and ends up listening to him.        In the second stanza, he tells her to "burn her body", a drastic command. He claims that "it is not clean and smells like sex", making him sick. She continues to agree with him and not stand up for herself, which furthermore provides evidence for suppression of women.        In the last stanza, she tells him that she loves him, and he can only reply "that's very nice", like he is less than interested in her. He asks if she has cut off her hands yet. This question nags at her, making her feel like she wants to be loved. She feels as though in order to feel loved, she must answer to the commands of this man, even if they are drastic, such as cutting off her hands or burning her body to get rid of the impurities. The main theme of this poem is suppression of women, which she seems to like to write about a lot.