Dorthe Nors - So Much for That Winter

The jungle’s full of monkeys.

Monkeys love the excrement of others.

Lars has had Linda on the front page.

Elisabeth’s been in the Bookstore of the Unknown.

Jette sits on the quay.

Mom’s on the web too often.

Dad’s dead.

Lars has fur on his face, but

Lars’s fur isn’t quite like Minna’s.

Minna’s fur is a metaphor.

Lars’s fur is real.

Minna’s studied portraits.

Lars and Dad have a beard in common, but

Lars smelled of Aqua Velva.

Dad of salt.

Minna’s looked at the map of Denmark.

Aarhus nestles in Marselisborg Forest.

Amager’s on the other end of the country, or

Amager’s in the middle of the country, or

Amager in any case is quiet for a brief moment.

The quiet makes room.

The quiet makes a dome over a moment’s clarity.

The clarity lays bare a person.

The person is Minna herself.

Minna hasn’t seen her own person for a long time.

Minna’s person has split ends.

Minna’s person has bags.

The person’s hand trembles quietly.

The person’s mouth hangs open.

Minna can hear a faint hum.

Minna thinks, I used to sing …

Minna gives herself the once-over.

Minna benefits from the examination.

Time now for a little holiday.

Other people aren’t to join the holiday.

Minna hasn’t been to Bornholm since she was fourteen.

Bornholm’s almost Sweden.

Bornholm’s in the opposite direction.

Bornholm’s an island.

Bornholm’s well suited to mental catharsis.

Lars will be forgotten.

The family’ll have to take care of itself.

The family can take care of itself.

Minna orders a ticket to Ystad.

Minna wants to develop the ability to sort people.

Minna wants an asshole filter.

Minna no longer wants to be a host species.

Minna takes Bergman along.

Bergman can ride in the backpack.

Minna’s sitting on the train to Ystad.

Minna’s feeling chipper.

Minna’s running away from it all.

Minna’s breaking from the pack.

The pack is evil.

Minna doesn’t want to be part of them.

Minna also feels melancholy.

Minna was sure it was something you grew out of.

Minna thought as a kid, As soon as I grow up, but

Grown-ups are kids who have lots to hide.

Dumb kids turn into dumb grown-ups.

Evil kids = evil grown-ups.

Minna gets the connection.

Minna walks around among ordinary people.

Ordinary people cheat on their taxes.

Ordinary people go to swinger clubs.

Ordinary people flee the scene of the crime.

Ordinary people enlist in the Nordland Regiment of the SS.

Ordinary people are quislings, collaborators, camp followers.

Ordinary people just need a stage.

The pig performs gladly.

Cowards are in good supply too.

Minna doesn’t get how she could have ignored it.

Minna’s clear-sighted enough.

Minna’s watched TV.

Minna followed the war in the Balkans.

Minna watched neighbors out each other to Serbian militias.

One day you’re tending cabbage together in the backyard.

The next you’re on a bus headed for a mass grave.

Your best friend’s a chameleon.

Evil’s a state that can be conjured up.

Evil exists.

Minna supposes she’s tarred with the same brush.

Karin isn’t exactly without stain either.

Elisabeth is family.

Lars could’ve been.

Minna realizes that it’s all about sorting.

Minna’s got to judge people one at a time.

Minna wants to learn not to trust.

That’s all going to be over now.

The last narcissist’s gotten her to clap.

The last Jutlander’s taken up residence in her in-box.

The last nymphomaniac.

The last reporter.

Indian demons.

Billy goats.

Kamikaze pilots.

Thieves in the night:

It’s over!

Minna feels her backbone grow.

Minna’s backbone sends out roots and shoots.

Minna’s backbone blossoms.

Minna looks out upon the southern Swedish landscape.

The landscape drifts past like a fog.

Grown-ups are kids who become like animals, Minna thinks.

Minna tries dozing.

The train’s got a school camp on board.

The school camp’s blocked all exits.

The teacher screams that the school camp has to settle down a bit.

The teacher screams, SO SIT DOWN, FREDERIK!

The teacher screams, THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE ON THE TRAIN!

That might be so, Minna thinks, but

Bergman’s the only human on the train.

Bergman lies on her lap.

Dread makes the dreaded real.

That’s true — or …

Minna listens to the school camp.

Minna dreaded not having a kid.

The school camp relieves the fear.

Kids are sweet, but

Kids reflect their parents’ seamy side.

Bergman knows that.

Bergman had nine kids.

Bergman had to make films to get away from his kids.

Minna shouldn’t be down in the mouth.

Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen is also along on the trip.

Anne Marie’s along in Minna’s mind.

Anne Marie preferred animals.

Anne Marie was into mermaids and horses.

Minna’s more into cats, but

Minna will make do alone.

Minna’s a composer!

Minna settles into her seat, thrilled about the ferry.

The Baltic is capricious.

The Baltic’s deep and smooth.

The Baltic’s a bowl, a submarine valley.

The Baltic’s as balmy as a bathtub.

Minna’s brought her bathing suit along.

It’s late in August.

Minna’s stoked.

Minna’s heading away from what hurts.

No one’s going to inflict any more damage, Minna thinks.

Everything’s going to get sorted, Minna thinks, because

Minna wants to grow an asshole filter.

Minna thinks she can grow it quickly.

Minna’s broken heart dwells in the breast of an optimist.

Minna’s boarded the Leonora Christine.

The school camp’s shepherded onto the upper deck.

The school camp’s met another school camp.

The school camps exchange sexual fluids.

Minna drinks coffee in the stern canteen.

The canteen’s full of retirees.

The retirees swarm up from the vehicle deck.

The retirees want to sit with one other.

Minna moves gladly.

Minna moves for two pairs of friends in their midseventies.

The gentlemen immediately order beer.

The missuses have newly permed hair.

The missuses make do with orange soda.

The gentlemen squeeze their permed missuses.

The missuses giggle.

The retirees have sex.

Minna can see they have sex.

Minna thinks of Mom.

Minna dismisses the thought.

The thought lands on Lars.

Lars without clothes on.

Lars with a hard-on.

Minna on horseback.

Cat on a hot tin roof.

Minna and Lars, genital to genital, no respect.

Minna blushes on the plastic ferry seat.

Minna’s been the fuck buddy of a disrespectful man.

That’s the way it is, thinks Minna.

Minna’s backbone withers.

Lars prefers sex with a machete.

It’s unbearable, but there you have it.

The retirees raise their glasses.

Minna takes up Bergman from her pack.

The Leonora Christine pulls away from the quay.

The Leonora Christine heads out.