After Reading Sylvia Plath's Riddle In Nine Syllables

sylvia, the elephant is inside your
tummy, you have become a melon growing and crawling in tendrils
a ponderous house
a red fruit
you have eaten a bag of green apples
and rode a train without stopping
to an exit

sylvia, i may not understand the nine syllables
inside you
for i am a man without
these syllables

sylvia i put two syllables somewhere
and it grows into three just three

there was bleeding and i saw it
i took her to the hospital and she was put into a sleep
and she was finally made to appear
clean to me

she was numb and speechless to the window panes
there was frost
and there was that bird which flew away since then
from her forehead

now, sylvia look at me
i was the man who only had three syllables

look at me in this sentence
i am a comma, i am a period.

poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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