Magical Object.

It's a little known fact
One of the most magical objects in the world
Is Sylvia Plath's prom dress
Strapless white duchesse satin
Full-skirted with a thousand layers of tulle
And a pleated heart-shaped bodice
Kept in the Smith College library
I put it on

I put it on
To cut an exquisite debutante silhouette
Because I need its perfect power today
My marriage is over and my youth is gone
I need knowledge I need new life
And I don't want to drive into this tree
I put on Plath's high school prom dress
Zipped up the back by myself
And said I want to live
Pouf went the dress into a wide circle
Of vibrating luminous strings
Now I'm flying over my house
Where white clouds rush over the roof
In a sparkly clear winter sky
I once read the sky is blue on Pluto

Cold as the hearts of the enemies of poetry
Two hundred and thirty degrees below zero
A little known fact

I'm hitching up the floor-length chiffon
My blue ankles peek from the hemline
As I soar over the ice fields of Pluto
Nothing can pull down
The froth of this decolletage
Nothing can tear apart
These radiant waistline seams
Plath knows what I mean
Plath knows everything
She who bore two children
And was a single mother
Living through the coldest London winter on record
Who wrote at night with chilled fingers
And made a rough decision
Her poems thrust from a hot heart

Plath knows where I am
I'm putting the dress on
To cause an awful lot of trouble
To seek revenge on the betrayers of words

To slice cold hearts onto a chilled plate
Someone has to do it
Falling past the twinkling stars
I will plummet to earth

Above the glaring satin my shoulders point
To hold up the bodice my breasts fill out
The spotless tulle rustles
And propels my body forward
Where are we going now, Plath?
What shall I do with your prom queen power?
Nobody nowhere can tell me
Was there ever such an enchanted object?
No not ever
Was there ever such a magical dress?
No never