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Hilary King

Grey-Haired Sylvia Plath

Would have been a pain in the ass.

She would have written too much,

posted too much, spoken up, spoken

ill, been reviled, been adored, become 

a grey-haired laurel-adorned bore.

Aging a lesson few teachers master

and no student remembers. I struggle 

in my studies. Wisdom eludes me,

regrets still fill corners of my life. 

She enjoyed weaving and keeping bees,

and she wrote her best poems last. 

Pray I survive my own cold London hells

to do half as much as half her best.

Sylvia Plath would have kicked ass.

Hilary King’s poems have appeared in Ploughshares, SWWIM, Salamander, TAB, DMQ Review, Rogue Agent, Fourth River, Freshwater Review, and other publications. Originally from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, she now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and animals. She is a poetry editor for DMQ Review and an MFA Creative Writing student at San Jose State University.

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