Julia Birch

“Ash, ash —-
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.”
― Sylvia Plath, Ariel: The Restored Edition

“I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me.”
― Sylvia Plath , The Collected Poems

“In this particular tub, two knees jut up
like icebergs, while minute brown hairs rise
on arms and legs in a fringe of kelp; green soap
navigates the tidal slosh of seas
breaking on legendary beaches; in faith
we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail
among sacred islands of the mad till death
shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.

--from "Tale of a Tub", written 1956”
― Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems

“Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems