Bare Feet on Linoleum

[Stanza 1]
Stay on your path Sylvia Plath
don't fall away like all the others

[Stanza 2]
Don't take all your secrets alone to your watery grave about
lovers and -

[Stanza 3]
The secrets you keep will keep you in deep like Amy and -
And brother
And all of the people you meet on the street will reiterate lies
that they uttered

[Stanza 4]
Leave me in peace, I cry
In the middle of the night
On a slow boat bound for Catalina for no reason

[Stanza 5]
Tiny drops of perspiration dot my forehead
could be mistaken for dew drops if this were photo season

[Stanza 6]
But alas this is a real life - and it's been a real fight just to
stop my mind from committing treason
Why you ask?
Because she told the townspeople I was crazy, and the lies, they
started to believe them

[Stanza 7]
But anyways - that's all over now

[Stanza 8]
I've moved on, gone scorched earth
And now I'm left wondering where to go from here
To Sonoma where the fires have just left?
South Dakota?

[Stanza 9]
Would standing in front of Mount Rushmore feel like the Great
American homecoming I never had?

[Stanza 10]
Would the magnitude of the scale of the sculptures take the place
of the warm embrace I've never got?

[Stanza 11]
Or should I just be here now
Bare feet on linoleum
Slicing vegetables onto water that I will later turn
into stew

[Stanza 12]
People love my stories
People love visions