Ariel américaine

Ariel américaine
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“vital English literary
history always in the
process of being rewritten”
—Jonathan Bate,
The Internationalization
Of English Literature
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She’d never had—
A real man before
Just Bell Jar boys
Fruit-cake as her

Hiding in the basement—
Gulping down all her
Mother’s sleeping pills
Her brother found her
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Johnny Panic girl—
Rosenbergs sizzling
Electroshock blackness
She was a mess

Big Daddy—
Professor of Bumblebees
Standing at blackboard
Lecturing dummies
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That’s the Problem—
Teachers make lousy
Parents, tenure a
Pitiful profession

What Sylvia needed—
Was a good fuck in bed
She mated with a Wolf
Our progeny was Ariel
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Yeats took over—
Slouching down into London
During the Boxer Snow Storm
Regent Park wolves howling

Sylvia spread her wings—
All I did was jump-start
Her closeted Muse into
Action with Words