Off that landspit of stony mouth-plugs, <br />Eyes rolled by white sticks, <br />Ears cupping the sea's incoherences, <br />You house your unnerving head--God-ball, <br />Lens of mercies, <br />Your stooges <br />Plying their wild cells in my keel's shadow, <br />Pushing by like hearts, <br />Red stigmata at the very center, <br />Riding the rip tide to the nearest point of <br />departure, <br /> <br />Dragging their Jesus hair. <br />Did I escape, I wonder? <br />My mind winds to you <br />Old barnacled umbilicus, Atlantic cable, <br />Keeping itself, it seems, in a state of miraculous <br />repair. <br /> <br />In any case, you are always there, <br />Tremulous breath at the end of my line, <br />Curve of water upleaping <br />To my water rod, dazzling and grateful, <br />Touching and sucking. <br />I didn't call you. <br />I didn't call you at all. <br />Nevertheless, nevertheless <br />You steamed to me over the sea, <br />Fat and red, a placenta <br /> <br />Paralyzing the kicking lovers. <br />Cobra light <br />Squeezing the breath from the blood bells <br />Of the fuchsia. I could draw no breath, <br />Dead and moneyless, <br /> <br />Overexposed, like an X-ray. <br />Who do you think you are? <br />A Communion wafer? Blubbery Mary? <br />I shall take no bite of your body, <br />Bottle in which I live, <br /> <br />Ghastly Vatican. <br />I am sick to death of hot salt. <br />Green as eunuchs, your wishes <br />Hiss at my sins. <br />Off, off, eely tentacle! <br />There is nothing between us.<br /><br />Sylvia Plath<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/medusa/
