Two girls there are : within the house <br />One sits; the other, without. <br />Daylong a duet of shade and light <br />Plays between these. <br /> <br />In her dark wainscoted room <br />The first works problems on <br />A mathematical machine. <br />Dry ticks mark time <br /> <br />As she calculates each sum. <br />At this barren enterprise <br />Rat-shrewd go her squint eyes, <br />Root-pale her meager frame. <br /> <br />Bronzed as earth, the second lies, <br />Hearing ticks blown gold <br />Like pollen on bright air. Lulled <br />Near a bed of poppies, <br /> <br />She sees how their red silk flare <br />Of petaled blood <br />Burns open to the sun's blade. <br />On that green alter <br /> <br />Freely become sun's bride, the latter <br />Grows quick with seed. <br />Grass-couched in her labor's pride, <br />She bears a king. Turned bitter <br /> <br />And sallow as any lemon, <br />The other, wry virgin to the last, <br />Goes graveward with flesh laid waste, <br />Worm-husbanded, yet no woman.<br /><br />Sylvia Plath<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/two-sisters-of-persephone/
