Sophie Mayer
RU 486
“that they may take no hurt neither from Offspring that was that wicked devil by virtue of this same shield which was named Killchild.” — James Joyce, “Oxen of the Sun,” Ulysses
it is an obstacle
obstruction prevention (9/10th of the law)
this occupation colonial
occupational (health)
(hazard)
where what persists is legal fiction
his shield/shielding him
his same shield which was named KillSavitaHalappanavar
it is (offered) for milly but not for molly an
umbrella a sunlit wall
shelter dependent on w/him
it is (still) (not) available
150, 000 women on waves in exile
bitter pill she swallows
legal or not she swallows
to author her own contract/ions
contragestive yes she said I will Yes
hail molly, repeal the 8th
TENDER
a gift no givens yes&no
debt or liability / one who
attends to, gives heed an
observer
*
there is a relation [etym.] between tenderness and intention
an [oed] extensive & complex development (tentacular) of the senses
/ the stretching out of a hand
*
to offer or advance
to be fragile, easily broken
to wait upon
this tender/
ness
(compare wilder)
*
intr. to become inflamed, glow, burn
tender: wildfire / each gesture
could catch
*
intense, also: breaking point
that stretch becomes the / tinder /
snap flash/point
*
canvas, skins, or cloth stretched / supported / extended / secured
such as [UNHCR] plastic sheeting that can be used to make a simple shelter
“the uprooted with materials” [?supported / extended / secured?]
*
A roll or pledget, usually of soft absorbent material, often medicated, or sometimes of a medicinal substance, formerly much used to search and cleanse a wound, or to keep open or distend a wound, sore, or natural orifice.
(obs.)
*
a darkroom, a portable pulpit; the name [oed]
given to a local ‘lodge’ or ‘habitation’ of the Rechabites; also
of the Zionists: “At the head of religious Zionism are the numerous ‘Tents’
of the ‘Lovers of Zion’” (1897)
*
to have or pitch one’s
cutting ground to yr cloth
[alt.] tent pegs through general’s heads
*
“Live in sukkot [Vayyiqra (Leviticus) 23:42-43] for seven days, so your descendants will remember that I had the Israelites live in wilderness shelters when I brought them out of Egypt.”
*
the wilderness shelters / stretches
intensity: reminder of slavery & flight
leave
to remain (in)
escape
precarity
contingency
grace
*
Copyright © Sophie Mayer 2016
Sophie Mayer co-edited Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot, Binders Full of Women and Glitter is a Gender with Sarah Crewe. They co-authored signs of the sistership (KFS, 2013), and Sophie is also the author of (O) (Arc 2015), The Private Parts of Girls (Salt 2011) and Her Various Scalpels (2009). www.sophiemayer.net