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Saturday, October 2, 2021

Sylvia Plath 3

 

CUT


What a thrill - 
My thumb instead of an onion. 
The top quite gone 
Except for a sort of hinge 

Of skin, 
A flap like a hat, 
Dead white. 
Then that red plush. 

Little pilgrim, 
The Indian's axed your scalp. 
Your turkey wattle 
Carpet rolls 

Straight from the heart. 
I step on it, 
Clutching my bottle 
Of pink fizz. A celebration, this is. 
Out of a gap 
A million soldiers run, 
Redcoats, every one. 

Whose side are they one? 
O my 
Homunculus, I am ill. 
I have taken a pill to kill 

The thin 
Papery feeling. 
Saboteur, 
Kamikaze man - 

The stain on your 
Gauze Ku Klux Klan 
Babushka 
Darkens and tarnishes and when 
The balled 
Pulp of your heart 
Confronts its small 
Mill of silence 

How you jump - 
Trepanned veteran, 
Dirty girl, 
Thumb stump.

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