Dorthe Nors - So Much for That Winter

Minna can climb it.

Minna can reach the stars.

Minna can reach the giant, the golden eggs, the empyrean.

Minna’s good at climbing, but then she dives.

It does the voice good to plunge headlong.

The voice breaks the surface of the sea.

The voice continues toward the bottom.

The sea grass sways and tickles.

The marine fauna stands still and listens.

The voice is alone with itself and the wet.

Minna closes her eyes and she sings,

The song unites as it fades.

That’s not enough for Minna.

Minna gives the song a last burst.

Minna’s heart lifts.

The gulls rise.

The wings flutter.

The wings applaud and applaud.

Minna opens her eyes, and there stands an angler.

The angler stands on the rock ten yards away.

The angler looks at Minna.

The angler creaks in his rubber boots.

The angler calls out,

The fish are getting spooked.

Minna blushes: I thought I was alone.

A kayaker instantly paddles past.

Another kayaker, and yet another.

The kayakers paddle past like geese in a village pond.

The angler points somewhere behind Minna.

Minna turns around.

The evening sun is blinding, but there sit a man and a woman.

The man and woman wave with their cigarettes.

The woman says it sounded lovely.

Minna repeats that she thought she was alone.

The woman and the man often sit by the lighthouse in the evening.

The view of Christiansø, says the man.

The view of the bathers, says the woman.

The woman points at a springboard a little ways off.

People are leaping from the springboard down among the cliffs.

Campground tents sprout up among the brush.

Minna doesn’t want to know anything else, but

The couple’s from Østerbro in Copenhagen.

The couple could stay on Bornholm forever.

The woman pinches the man on the thigh.

The man pinches the woman on the thigh.

The man has large lips.

The woman isn’t wearing a bra.

Minna wishes it weren’t embarrassing to leave.

Bergman smiles at her from down on the granite.

Bergman declares that she’s never been lovelier, but

Bergman would lie worse than a horse runs if his prick were at risk.

Flight is a sign of weakness, she whispers.

Silence descends.

Silence is no longer a balm for the soul.

Silence is a social defect.

Minna feels the need to converse a bit.

Minna asks whether the couple has a cottage.

The woman says the cottage belongs to her husband.

The husband in question isn’t along on holiday.

The man with the large lips on the other hand is along for the whole trip.

The man asks Minna where she’s from.

Minna doesn’t know what to say.

Minna has more of an impulse to cry.

Aarhus —, says Minna.

Minna is suddenly unsure.

Minna felt at home in the song a few minutes ago.

The song disappeared, down toward the bottom.

The song stands still among the herring.

Everything else belongs to another reality.

Everything else, Minna thinks to herself, is mere geography.

Minna’s crawled into bed at her lodgings.

The landlady’s not home.

The dog’s inconsolable.

Minna’s stuffed a quilt around the bottom of the door.

Minna’s glad she has earplugs.

Minna’s glad she’s by herself again.

The man and woman wanted to accompany her to Svaneke.

Minna was dragged in as an unwilling witness.

Minna didn’t escape the couple till they were at the harbor kiosk.

Disappointment inhabits her mind like rainy weather.

Minna really wants an asshole filter.

Minna wants to start setting boundaries.

Minna can’t say either yes or no, and

Minna’s legs feel heavy.

The duvet feels strange.

The lodgings smell of cottage.

Minna thinks of spooks.

Minna’s only afraid of spooks once in a while.

Minna doesn’t believe in spooks, but

Things you don’t believe in often exist anyway.

The Grauballe Man haunted Minna one spring when she was a child.

The Grauballe Man lay dead in the Moesgård Museum, but

The Grauballe Man walks around at night.

The Grauballe Man wriggles out of his display.

The Grauballe Man stands out on the cobblestones.

The Grauballe Man walks into Marselisborg Forest.

The Grauballe Man loves nature — and Minna.

The bog man visits Minna at night.

Minna lies in her small bed with the duvet pulled up to her nose.

Minna lies and stares at the door of her room.

The living room resounds with the sound of coffee cups.

Elisabeth’s room resounds with the sound of high school boys.

Minna lies with her eyes on stalks, and then!

The door opens, and who should enter?

Minna’s friend from Marselisborg Forest.

The Grauballe Man smells of harness.

The Grauballe Man’s body is a story of its own.

The head crushed.

The throat cut.

The feet flat and lumpy, but what’s worse:

The bog man leans over Minna.

The bog man’s picked anemones for Minna.

The bog man boasts of his earthly remains.

The bog man still has flesh on his bones.

Minna will end up a skeleton!

Dad too!

Mom!

Elisabeth?

Minna doesn’t believe in spooks.

Minna believes in the Grauballe Man.

Minna lies in her Bornholm sanctuary.

Minna considers the spiritual probabilities.

Bergman haunts her too.

Elisabeth employs demons.

The Fenris wolf howls.

The spooks are coming if they exist.

Elisabeth’s coming if she discovers where Minna is.

Elisabeth wants to have the little ones under her thumb.

Minna just wants to love the little ones.

Minna’s little ones would never lack for sweets.

Minna’s little ones would grow roly-poly.

Minna really can’t say no.

It doesn’t matter now anyhow.

Minna won’t become anyone’s mother, and

Kids are the worst spooks in the world.

Kids can’t understand that they don’t exist.

Kids stick their cold hands under the duvet.

Kids would like to slap the sleeper’s face.

Minna collects herself.

Minna forces herself to think of dull things.

Minna makes plans for the morrow.

Minna wants to go farther out.

Minna wants to find a rock so desolate.

Minna wants to go out to the rock and sing.

Minna wants to make sure she’s alone.

Minna wants to stand there and get everything to swing.

The song will vault higher and higher.

The sky will stretch itself open,

The waves cast themselves against the cliff,

The ships beat into the wind.

Minna presses herself down into her rented linen.

Minna pushes herself out of reality.

The children exit Minna’s consciousness.

The children go with the Grauballe Man.

Marselisborg Forest closes up behind them.

The museum awaits.

The roe deer.

Minna’s put on her bathing suit under her sundress.

Minna wants to go out and sing and get tan.

Minna wants to rock-bathe.

Minna has to get provisions first.

Minna’s gone for a walk in town.

Svaneke’s lovely.

Svaneke’s light yellow.

Svaneke’s a set piece, thinks Minna.

The sky a stage border.

The smokehouse a sort of canteen.

The knickknack shops = the costume department.

Minna plays with the motif, and there’s something to it.