I Am When Eddie Cohen Shows Up in Every Sylvia Plath Bio

                           Everyone thinks          Eddie Cohen's arrival
in the biography means    something interesting
                                        will happen, but then it doesn't!
                                                                                Nobody is surprised
when he arrives at her dorm              as a surprise.            Who hasn't waited at Sylvia's house?
          None of us were ever invited in. It is obvious
if he said he was going to drive 30 hours to see her, she would have told him not to.

I can't argue with the timeline but I can divulge
                                                  different details        each time
                  so it seems like a different story.

When I try to find a photo of him online,
                                               I type "Eddie Cohen Plath"
                                                                             like they are married
        (He wishes).                    In the one photo we have all seen of Eddie
                                                     Cohen, the pack of cigarettes in his hand is also smiling.

Internet search: Eddie Cohen as a metaphor. Eddie Cohen as a lesson
on the friend zone.                            If we knew more,
                                                would we be more or less on Sylvia's side?

Publishing a story in Seventeen magazine summons
                                                       men wearing leather jackets.

Eddie Cohen arrives via letter,    then via car,    then he disappears.

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Valerie Loveland enjoys collage, audio poetry, running, houseplants, and silent movies. She works in tech and lives in New Jersey.