I See Myself
Nazifa Islam
a found poem: Sylvia Plath’s Letters Home
My ugly red soul isn’t strong
my senses are blunted, and I can’t breathe
deeply now.
I know I am difficult to love—
so distant, so nagging, so utterly shut off
from honest companionship.
I write because I am so
close to being
absurd and the despair is simply too much.
Someone, anyone, tell me
that one day—even eons hence—
it will be spring.
Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books). Her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, Smartish Pace, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications. She earned her MFA at Oregon State University. You can find her @nafoopal.