True Confessions


TRUE CONFESSIONS

_____________________

Divorce
Shutting You Up
The Bee Meeting
Aurelia the Bitch
Howls and Whispers
Minotaur Husband
The Wolves Eating Your Daddy
Young Nicholas
_____________________

Divorce


“spermy mistletoe”
—Ted Hughes
“Superstition,”
Howls and Whispers

Friday divorced Adam—
Sylvia cast me outta Eden

Saturday killed Sylvia—
So much for evil Eve

Then came Assia’s turn—
How could I trust her?

Same modus operandi—
Gassed her to death
______________________

 

Shutting You Up


“Mirrors can kill
and talk”
—Sylvia Plath
“The Courage of
Shutting Up,”
Ariel

Stuffing you in the oven—
Shutting you up real good

Turning on the gas—
No more wagging tongue

No more stool pigeons—
Assia had to go too

Fox head, otter head—
Dead rabbits too

Just call me a bored—
Yorkshire Killer
____________________

The Bee Meeting


“Who are these people
at the bridge to meet me?”
—Sylvia Plath
“The Bee Meeting,”
Ariel

Lies and more lies—
Your poetry a dark city

Your novels, stories—
You journal suburbs

A nice big city—
To make lots of money

I’ll drain your life—
With death’s royalties

Busy scholars, critics—
Pilgrims, Lesbos libbers

Greedy just like me—
To make a quick buck
________________________

 

Aurelia the Bitch


“Hit him
in the purse”
—Aurelia Plath
Letter to Sylvia Plath,
“Howls and Whispers”

Aurelia hated my guts—
I was an evil bacterium

The gigolo who aborted—
Sylvia’s pedigree career

“Be strong,” Aurelia said—
“Go straight for a divorce”

Your analyst said the same—
“Keep him out of your bed”

And so you kicked me out—
Out of our Court Green

Burned my manuscripts—
I was in a real jam

What else could I do—
You’d of ruined my career
________________

Howls and Whispers


"One day when you are older,
you will regret being my daughter"
—Ted Hughes, "The Poison that Drove
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes Apart."
The Sunday Times 28 March 2010

I’ve been watching—
Wondering what they’ll do

When they find out—
What really happened

So new to their unlived lives—
So ready for anything

They could never imagine—
What I’d really done

Then my white mask—
My spreading fingers

Ruby and wringing—
Screaming to myself

He and his sister—
Caught in my labyrinth

It doesn’t take a medium—
To decipher a nightmare
_____________

Minotaur Husband


“the surreal mystery”
—Ted Hughes,
“The Minotaur,”
Howls and Whispers

I’m the plot unfolding—
Here deep inside me

My fingers like cripples—
The scene of the crime

A surreal mystery—
Performing murder

Here in the center—
Inside the labyrinth

Waiting to kill her—
That cold London night
_________________

The Wolves Are Eating Your Daddy


“that is not your mother”
—Ted Hughes, “The Dogs
Are Eating Your Mother,
Birthday Letters

It’s not your mother—
The wolves are eating me

It’s me running from—
The bloodthirsty howls

How succulent I’ll be—
When they find out the truth

When the hyena comes—
And digs up my grave

What a cornucopia—
Of shame and guilt I’ll be

But then you already sense it—
Out there on the Brooks Range

Think better of me—
When the vultures circle me
_______________________

Young Nicholas


“Your son’s eyes”
—Ted Hughes,
“Life After Death,”
Birthday Letters

Your son’s eyes—
Which unsettled us

With his Slavic—
Asiatic epicanthic fold

They would become—
So perfectly your eyes

Did he hear it—
The howling wolves at night?

There on Fitzroy Road—
Up there in Yeats’ flat?

Is that why—
He fled to Alaska?


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