Phantom Texts

“one of the journals simply

"disappeared," much like

the draft of Doubletake”

—Anna Journey, After Ariel:

An Argument for Sylvia Plath's

Phantom Third Poetry Collection,

Plath Profiles 83

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Rather than explicating—

Investigating and elaborating

On Sylvia Plath’s murder—

Rather than the suicide trope

To do a “Doubletake”—

To create a noir phantom text

A film noir murder movie—

Like “Double Indemnity”

To set up a fake scenario—

A “Doubletake” filmscript

Sylvia gets Ted Hughes first—

Not the other way around

And throw in Assia too—

As part of the noir bargain

Only the Yew tree knows—

That’s where they’re buried

After Sylvia sneaks up—

Behind them making love

And blows their brains out—

There in St. Peter’s cemetery

And buries them deep—

Down with the Devon dead

Continuing to live there—

At her home in Court Green

Skipping the London scene—

No Fitzroy deadly rendezvous

No Boxer Storm suicide—

Instead staying at home

The grieving, abandoned—

Wife of Yorkshire adultery

A dead-beat husband—

Disappearing in thin air

Gone with his Assia Weevil—

Who knows where?