JONES-BRONTË

Louisa and Emily

“They touched this,

wore that, wrote this”

—Sylvia Plath

Unabridged Journal

August 9, 1956

__________

Emily’s bridal crown—

Heirloom lace so very delicate

Emily’s death couch—

Her small, luminous books

___________

Her watercolors, waiting—

Napkin ring, Apostle cupboard

There are two ways there in—

That stony house, both tiresome

_____________

But the mad difficult way—

Is the one through her novels

The public route goes—

From town thru pasture land

______________

Over the stone steps—

And voluble white cataract

The rock warped road—

Green slimy footbridge

___________

Goat-flattened grasses—

Where a carriage once ran

An old carriage road’s—

Sunk ruts deep in the mud

______________

A track well-worn

Like Wuthering Heights

Losing itself, losing itself—

But still her novels live

Midwestern Noir