“Words Without Learning”, “Gullveig” , & “Parasocial Song of Trolls”

by Summer Isle

(to hear readings of these poems, go to our podcasts section!)

WORDS WITHOUT LEARNING

protozoa. it's basically me.

a debtor's insurgency this

endless list of fictitious girls

eight times fallen from

this world. knit up

in ugliness from some

flagellum once, presumably

when we, not men, were

veiled flesh of earthly

cunts. & ODIN

& his one good eye

made meat from simple

shapes of ice that

looked like you

& not like I

as it plotted to take

a space above its

station like an angel.

twisted tail. turned

to fly. & i

held empty checks

of base desires I

cannot name nor

recognise having

never gone to school.

GULLVEIG

i won't watch it.   little girls

stuff themselves with wheat and

set themselves on fire.   corn

dollies. twisted limbs grown black

on the back of golden fire.

what are bodies

but ears of grass

grown too heavy to

hold the weight

of this

world curled

and  lumbered

with our flesh.

deaf to the

recurrences of ash

that sing

through the hollows

of our boughed out

bones. oh   god

oh god oh   god

oh absent father god

and the dead masochism

of men for the felling

of the other.

do i not bleed?

girls leak pearl

barley, speaking

barely a lick

of sense.

PARASOCIAL SONG OF TROLLS

(i)

sometimes i forget i inhabit my

face. rehearse how to be heard

beyond gender. feel

better when i was

bullied as a boy.

dox this body and its presumption.

google map screen cap of my

default state.

girls don't have to be lonely.

kalvin garrah check my chest.

cut my head and

place it elsewhere. let

no life spring forth

(ii)

but where is

the rest of mimir?

i check my mirror

for odin's eye.

find nothing.

i find something in the

act of digital self harm.

act with no name.

forget that i

ever existed beyond

the root of all this.

(iii)

of old was the age when

mimir lived. he crafted

distance with his hands.

checking the text i conclude

that i must have

predisposition for this.

brown haired alice

lifts the nut brown

bowl and sips.