A Poem By Someone Who's Not Me

Mad Girl's Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
and arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
and sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, Hell's fires fade:
exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
but I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
at least when spring comes, they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

-Sylvia Plath

I never want to leave California.