Poem by Sylvia Plath

For a Fatherless Son

You will be aware of an absence, presently,
Growing beside you, like a tree,
A death tree, color gone, an Australian gum tree —-
Balding, gelded by lightning—an illusion,
And a sky like a pig's backside, an utter lack of attention.
But right now you are dumb.
And I love your stupidity,
The blind mirror of it. I look in
And find no face but my own, and you think that's funny.
It is good for me
To have you grab my nose, a ladder rung.
One day you may touch what's wrong —-
The small skulls, the smashed blue hills, the godawful hush.
Till then your smiles are found money.

1. In Plaster
2. The Snowman on the Moor
3. Prologue to Spring
4. Pheasant
5. The Times Are Tidy

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