all the pallid waiting everywhere

"Upstairs, in the bright, white, sterile cubicle of the bathroom, smelling of warm flesh and toothpaste, I bent over the washbowl in unthinking ritual, washing the proscribed areas, worshipping the glittering chromium, the light that clattered back and forth, brittle, blinding, from the faucets. Hot and cold; cleanliness coming in smooth scented green bars; hairs in thin, penciled lines, curving on the white enamel; the colored prescriptions, the hard, glassed-in jars, the bottles that can cure the symptoms of a cold or send you to sleep you to sleep within an hour. And then to bed, in the same potetially fetile air, scented of lavendar, lace curtains and the warm feline odor like musk, air, scented of lavendar, lace curtains and the warm feline odor like musk, waiting to assimilate you -- everywhere the pallid waiting. And you are the moving epitome of all this. Of you, by you, for you. God, is this all it is, the ricocheting down the corridor of laughter and tears? Of self-worship and self-loathing? Of glory and disgust?"
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

6/6/2007
photographs by ninyamarie♥