Assia Wevill, the greatest rival of Sylvia Plath

Love me I said

But in the end you hated me

And bitterly so.

Green was not our landscape.

It was much more as if

My childhood had begun to bloom again.

Nazi Germany, the train, that awful train journey, growing up

In Tel Aviv, the needles, flying into tantrums.

Was my English not articulate enough for you?

I would have peeled all the potatoes in the world for you

Given the chance but I was nothing like her was I?

Why didn’t you just say so?

That I wasn’t good enough.

Three marriages, three marriages.

I knew what they were all thinking.

Why weren’t you the one that came out with it, that said it out loud?

Let us put an end to this but it was much more than an affair.

You had said so yourself on numerous occasions.

Copycat. Copycat. They all said afterwards.

When I held Shura in my arms the one thing

That meant the most in the world to me all I could think of

Was forgive me, forgive me. Gas.

Ted, your gestures are in my blood you know.

Flowers in my brain while I fidget in my grave.

Gone too soon. Gone too soon from my beautiful Ted’s world

Of words, your seasons, your earth and your paragraphs

That I have envied for all of our life together

With our children. All I ever wanted is a glimpse of us as perfect people.

It is not working. This is not working so I will put on a disguise.

You abandoned me. You abandoned our blossoms.

Our kingdom, your throne for my empire of the sun.

Health is past. I am no longer part of the living my darling.

You have damaged my imagination forever and I cannot even

Dream of living uprooted

And forever being infiltrated by a madman.

Did you remember her at all when you were with us?

When you were up close and personal with shades

Of your dirty-exotic Assia and little pampered Shura?

And now that you will never see us ever again.

The taste of a double life was wonderful wasn’t it?

At the cost of others what do you feel inside your heart now?

Is it waves of decay inside the pool of your great mind?

I was your greatest admirer. Shura was Frieda’s greatest admirer.

Will you ever write a great poem again?