Danse Macabre by Sylvia Plath

Down among strict roots and rocks,
eclipsed beneath blind lid of land
goes the grass-embroidered box.
Arranged in sheets of ice, the fond
skeleton still craves to have
fever from the world behind.
Hands reach back to relics of
nippled moons, extinct and cold,
frozen in designs of love.
At twelve, each skull is aureoled
with recollection’s ticking thorns
winding up the raveled mold.
Needles nag like unicorns,
assault a sleeping virgin’s shroud
till her stubborn body burns.
Lured by brigands in the blood,
shanks of bone now resurrect,
inveigled to forsake the sod.
Eloping from their slabs, abstract
couples court by milk of moon:
sheer silver blurs their phantom act.
Luminous, the town of stone
anticipates the warning sound
of cockcrow crying up the dawn.
With kiss of cinders, ghosts descend,
compelled to deadlock underground.

—————

The End

And that’s the End of the Poem

© Poetry Monster, 2021.

Poems by topic and subject.

Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry.

Poetry Monster — the multilingual library of poetic works. Here you’ll find original poems, poetry translations, ancient verses, ballads and even folk tales.

Poetry Monster (or even The Poetry Monster) — is also an international multilingual community of poets and poetry connoisseurs. Join us:

Register.

Some external links: The Bat’s Poetry Cave. — Fledermaus’s poetry site. Talking Writing Monster. — the irreverent and irrelevant chatter on subjects both serious and not quite. A free for all board. You can scribble anything on it without registration (but it doesn’t let spammers in). You can even post your poems. Qwant.com. — a search engine from France. It’s an alternative because there are a few alternatives, like Bing, Duckduckgo, and Ecosia. And there is Yandex, the ultimate language-oriented search engine for the Russophone world. Commercial Links: Russian Commerce – the foreign trade assistance agency Other links: Poems and poetry in Russian (if you are reading this in English, as you obviously are, then you’d have to switch the language, the language switch is on the menu. More on languages)