In Those Years

In those years, people will say, we lost track
of the meaning of we, of you
we found ourselves
reduced to I
and the whole thing became
silly, ironic, terrible:
we were trying to live a personal life
and, yes, that was the only life
we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged
into our personal weather
They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove
along the shore, through rages of fog
where we stood, saying I

... Adrienne Rich

Notes: At first read, it sounded somewhat like a failed relationship. As time go by, all one could think of is his or herself, never the other. And then the "great dark birds of history" lost me.

There's a feminist interpretation of it too - and it can be found here.