Blood Flight - Jenny Hval

I carefully rearranged my senses

So they could have a conversation

Taught them to switch places;

From each pore in my skin grew shimmering eyes!

And fingerprints filled the eye sockets

From the ears grew two tongues

And I sang for people passing a strange song

Told them stories without moving my lips!

(Mouth half-open, still)

They assumed the words came from themselves;

These unfamiliar thoughts

And I sang to them:

Aaaaaa Aaaaa Aaaaaaaaaaaaa

Such is the speech of the body:

The ribs painted their fingernails

(Black! of course)

And on the edges of the cunt

Grew little teeth!

The clitoris, that great sphinx, opened its eye:

So many blind years, acting Oedipus

Meanwhile the vocal chords were listening

For the wind howling

Whispering a familiar language of breath —

Secret tales for them to learn

Then from my veins came a strange itching

And I felt a pull through the shoulder blades

I should have seen it coming!

The blood was itching!

And etched a hole at the nape of the neck

It flew out into the night

Like a long, red ribbon to the sky

And up we went, blood and I, spread over the city

The dark sky lay against my skin

So close —

Like an eyelid