Sylvia Plath's journal entries

"Click-click: tick-tick

Clock snips time in two

Lap of rain

In the drain pipe

Two o'clock

And never you.

Never you, down the evening,

I cannot

Cry, or even smile

Acidly or bitter-sweetly

For never you and incompletely.

Things surround me;

I could touch

Soap or toothbrush

Desk or chair.

Never mind the three dimensions

All is flat, and you not there.

Letters, paper, stamps

And white. And black.

typewritten-you, and there

It is.

The trickle, liquid trickle

Of rain in drain-pipe

Is voice enough

For me tonight.

Hard quick click-clik

Of the clock

Is pain enough,

enough heart-beat

For me tonight.

The narrow cot,

The iron bed

Is space enough

And warmth enough...

Enough, enough.

To bed and sleep

And tearless creep

The formless seconds

Minutes hours

And never you

The raindrops weep

And never you

And tick-tick,

tick-tick

pass the hours."