“Lady Lazarus” by Jacqueline Doyle
For Sylvia Plath
That was one pissed-off chick, you know what I’m saying? Sure you do. We’ve all been there, ready to eat men like air. Whirling in circles, spitting menace, lightning bolts shooting from extended fingertips as we point, “You! Yeah, you!” He’s not going to fuck with you no more, they’re not going to fuck with you no more. No matter what, nothing, nobody’s keeping you down. You’re coming back! You’re going to stomp that son-of-a-bitch, you’re going to haunt his ass. And maybe you put your head in the oven thinking that too. Take that, Herr Enemy. You’re the original comeback kid, hell yeah, nine lives and counting, and this time’s no different, except this time it’s different, and you’re not coming back, unless words count, and of course they do. Let me tell you, dying’s not an art. It’s what you make of it. The words. Each time someone repeats your bad luck charm you’re back, the same woman resurrected, red hair swirling and crackling like flames. You turn and burn. Beware, beware. You said it girl, but you didn’t listen. ‘Cause you were that pissed off.
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Jacqueline Doyle Artist Statement:
Jacqueline Doyle lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her flash prose has appeared or is
forthcoming in PANK, Monkeybicycle, Sweet, Quarter after Eight, Post Road, The Pinch,
and Nothing to Declare: A Guide to the Flash Sequence (White Pine Press, 2016). Her
work has earned two Pushcart nominations, a Best of the Net nomination, and Notable
Essay citations in Best American Essays 2013 and Best American Essays 2015. “Lady
Lazarus” first appeared in Tattoo Highway.
