Her Semblance

Inspired by ‘The Applicant’ by Sylvia Plath

Do you think you could tell me a lie?
Prevaricate
my truth, and fabricate your thoughts,
tell me a tale
of anything but.


Could those words pass your lips? No, no? Then
how can I give you a thing?
Leave it.
Walk away.
You should understand


the world is dazzling
when you are a saint and she is blessed;
the faces are smiling because you can.
You don’t believe me?
Look, there they are


watching and waiting for you
their neo-world miracle ‘child’.
Beguile them with perfection.
But you’re forgetting boy
you are a child----


Small and quiet, and oh so guilty.
Don’t you believe me?
Well, I am convinced; assured to be sure
there is another side and I do not doubt,
believe me, I will provoke.


I claimed no fault and screamed your name.
I wished it be your vice.
It’s true, my love, I shied away,
But perhaps it pays to compromise?
Now if taken from there


it’ll be of some use to explain
our current status.
A timeless piece, if ever there was;
it has your brilliance, it has my discredit
it has éclat to both our names.


Dear God, it works – that’s what’s wrong.
You have no flaw, except for this
you have no clue, except you know,
my boy, this shows her odium.
Just believe me, believe me, believe me.

(Aren't we all so terribly lovely?)

*semblance - An outward or token appearance: "Foolish men mistake transitory semblance for eternal fact" (Thomas Carlyle).