KATHY ACKER ON THE BUS
the horizon is dripping honey and cement
industrial lights of Eleusis
“there will always be somebody riding the bus”
Don Quixote is heading to a party uninvited,
today’s tarot reading told her it’s time to socialize again
She’s thinking of performing a ritual on a crossroad
in the mystical place that is Eleusina,
a landscape oozing with primordial power
coming out of earth’s vagina
the vagina is always industrialized
The first industrial revolution happened when
the first sex workers started working on ancient dicks.
She’s ready to call upon the power ofGAIA and HECATEHUGE SLUTS
tomorrow noon. Everything is calculated.
The ritual will include Kathy using a rosemary branch
dipped in water and oil to spill it over her naked body.
Then she will go eat boiled bitter greens in a nearby tavern.
The vampire men of Eleusina will be watching her
but she knows their game
She knows the incestuous crimes they’ve committed
Their sperm transmits nationalism
She’s here to stake Lord Byron, their patron saint and father
Drive her wooden stake right through his heart
She means business this time
Justice and Piety august I call,
θραύουσα δικαίως,
human life annoy
those mothers who are fathers
I’m always that person who notices how violent their love is
they want your love to be used as a weapon, just as theirs
είχα ήδη αρχίσει να διαλύομαι στον αέρα
ήταν ξένη σ’εμένα όμως χρησιμοποιούσε
το σώμα μου ξεκίνησα να μιλάω
για να σταματήσω την ευγενική εξαΰλωση
street signs fading into languorous music ως πράκτορας ενός παρακράτους
“how to invent a language μυθοπλασίας
on a bus” προβοκάτσια:
some passengers are asleep προκλητική συμπεριφορά, λεκτική
others murmur softly ή/και γραπτή με σκοπό
prayers to St. George να υπονομεύσει τις παγιωμένες
σχέσεις
the slayer of dragons συγγένειας
when stretch’d upon the bed of grief
the sex seeks relief
συρματοπλεγμένη πολυάνθεμε
πολυώνυμε δαίμων
ποια ώρα διαστέλλεται
ποια δαίμονας θα φέρει επάρκεια σαν πορτοκάλι
ποια επανάληψη συλλαβών
(tombs of ancient tribes are resting beneath the houses
in the woods there’s mostly pines and ruins of dream hotels
capitalism is falling apart and re-emerging as a vampire tooth
we’re looking at Kathy’s short hair, her tanned skin, a bloody knee)
She’s tried foolishness, loneliness, sexiness, emptiness
licked the sorrow from the wound
Here to plunge once more in the womb waters
PROTHYRÆA
venerable pow’r, who bring’st relief in labour’s dreadful hour
λύσε τους πόνους μιας αρχαίας αλφαβήτου ντροπής
the whole world is an orange
I’m inside a worm bus traveling across this juicy sphere that is non-stop producing sticky dreams
endless solar power
eternal desire
my body is your body and your body is one with the orange sun and I will never die
✰
Olga Vereli is a writer based in Athens. Her work is interdisciplinary and cross-genre. She has published a collaborative zine under the title The Cemetery Is A Forest and runs the newsletter The Gizi Resident.
aglimpseof.net 