Ariel's Achoo

[RiverNotch]

Leanne edit:

ARIEL'S ACHOO

I sympathize with Plath --
I'd gas my head through oven too
if, like her,

I knew Daddy was a Nazi.
But the fool,
though already riding,

remained behind the fence -- kept feeling
the weight of the tattoo,
numbered the faces of her children

(one, two) with the reckoning
of the Word -- and drops of dew
from the nigger-eye

heavy
as marble cubes.
If like her,

I would have been didactic -- already
the Wandering Jew --
Eros, c'est la vie,

to commandant Hughes,
then let the towels cool
in the closet.

ARIEL'S ACHOO

I can sympathize with Plath --
gas my head through oven too,
if, like her,

knew Daddy was a Nazi.
But the fool,
though already riding,

remained behind the fence -- kept feeling
the weight of the tattoo,
numbered the faces of her children

(one, two) with the reckoning
of the Word -- drops of dew
from the nigger-eye,

heavy
as marble cubes.
If like her,

I would have been didactic -- already
the Wandering Jew --
Eros, c'est la vie,

to commandant Hughes,
then let the towels cool
in the closet.

ARIEL SNEEZES

(One) Can sympathize with Plath --
gas the head through oven too,
if like her

thought Daddy was a Nazi.
But the fool,
though already riding,

remained behind the fence -- kept feeling
the weight of the tattoo,
numbered the faces of her children

(two) or the reckonings
of the Word -- drops of dew
from the nigger-eye

heavy
as marble cubes.
If like her,

I'd be didactic -- already
the Wandering Jew --
Eros, c'est la vie,

to commandant Hughes,
then leave the towels to cool
in the closet (three).