Sylvia Plath

For A Fatherless Son

You will be aware of an absence, presently, Growing beside you, like a tree, A death tree, color gone, an Australian gum tree —- Balding, gelded by lightning—an illusion, And a sky like a pig's backside, an utter lack of attention. But right now you are dumb. And I love your stupidity, The blind mirror of it. I look in And find no face but my own, and you think that's funny. It is good for me To have you grab my nose, a ladder rung. One day you may touch what's wrong —- The small skulls, the smashed blue hills, the godawful hush. Till then your smiles are found money.