WETHER

each mourning i pull 5 fyne blades akross
the taught sirfaces of my body in faith
i’ll luk less cockatrice 2 myself & mor
sumthn placid-passing 2u & this mourning
eye woke at 3:24am tryn
2 decree wether or not it wud bare fruit
2 rite a blog post under me own own name
or 1 o the divers names that sit half-fittn
on me wingèd sholders abt how there’s no
necessaryo ntologicalc ontradicti onbetweent hehistoric
alanalysis ofgenderasa classsyste mevenaccou nting4thee
pistemicli mitsoftotal isinganaly sis&myactu allyexisti
-ng materiocultural sellf which wayghed
as much ghold as the 5 blades mor or less

*

on daze on whitch i sirmise it is plausible
2 meat another body’s i eye must
deduce wether or knot to correkt or b
correkted on how the luminiferous aether bounded
by the tort & dry sirfaces o me body
& by me bloody cloes shd b perseived
& the basis o this deduction is weather it’ll b
bludier to make publick that hott friction
atween sphear & sphear or bluddier to leave abrasion
unakcnowledged & pumpid fae hart 2 hart
& whenever i don’t have 2 chooze i coold gulp 4 pleisure
& these wirds abt whitch i am deciding r no
more than 4 lettrs long & hae the longest
lexical entries whitch i woold gladly burn

*

there is also u learn i lurn a cistem in clohthing
wear if u excede i excede a sirtain score
the probability o violence enacted on the taut
dry & iching surfaces o me body
on a luminous day exseeds 50%
& so let said scor be 10 then a dress woold b
10 points while hottpants & a strappie topp r in
-dividually wirth 5 eatch & make-up 4
& earrings 4 & leggns 6 & a haircut
applize a multiplier effekt and u
can’t i can’t no whither or naught u i wish
2 where or groh breasts bcos your me boddy growls
or 2 mayke it easier 2 score thru your me war
-drobe when blanking the tub o old shirts on the flor

*

what i am tryn 2 spell is thare is a choyce
on the tought dri itchn and brused surfaces
o me boddy 2 keep gohn 2 weight or 2 tern back
& this choice is breath 2 breath contact 2 contact
& what is ment by the word “&r$n%!&!)n” witch word
decodes me werds is not necessarily or ever
a leap atween nailed staytes but a contrivance
o choosn or being chosn 4 in witch
it’s opaque how the choyce is maid or wot
it is that causes u 2 bleed wake up
look smell rite wrong exude greenish smohk
buy cloths tweat breathe flick homonculi
from ur hair or wether the pill u slip under
ur tongue is what keeps u alive or keeps u from living

Image by Gregg Montesi

Harry Josephine Giles

Harry Josephine Giles is a writer and performer from Orkney, now living in Edinburgh. They have lived on four islands, each larger than the last. They have a MA in Theatre Directing from East 15 Acting School are studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Stirling. Harry Josephine’s work generally happens in the crunchy places where performance and politics get muddled up.

As a poet, Harry Josephine has toured North America, given feature sets at venues from the Bowery Poetry Club to the Soho Theatre, performed at festivals from the London Book Fair to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, and won multiple slams including the BBC Scotland Slam 2009. They won the IdeasTap National Poetry Competition in 2012, and both their poetry books — Tonguit (Freight Books 2015) and The Games (Out-Spoken Press 2018) — were shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, with Tonguit also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

As a theatre artist, Harry Josephine has been featured in the SPILL National Platform, and at festivals including Forest Fringe (UK), NTI (Latvia), CrisisArt (Italy) and Teszt (Romania). Their one-to-one show What We Owe was listed in the Guardian’s “Best of the Edinburgh Fringe” round-up – in the “But is it art?” section. They are currently touring the multimedia poetry show Drone which will feature at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019.