madi

Amnesiac

No use, no use, now, begging Recognize!
There is nothing to do with such a beautiful
blank but smooth it.
Name, house, car keys,
The little toy wife --
Erased, sigh, sigh.
Four babies and a cooker!
Nurses the size of worms and a minute doctor
Tuck him in.
Old happenings
Peel from his skin.
Down the drain with all of it!
Hugging his pillow
Like the red-headed sister he never dared to touch,
He dreams of a new one --
Barren, the lot are barren!
And of another color.
How they'll travel, travel, travel, scenery
Sparking off their brother-sister rears
A comet tail!
And money the sperm fluid of it all.
One nurse brings in
A green drink, one a blue.
They rise on either side of him like stars.
The two drinks flame and foam.
O sister, mother, wife,
Sweet Lethe is my life.
I am never, never, never coming home!

-Plath