NIDDHOGGR UPON REACING A DEFINITION OF WHAT’S WRONG

I’m delighted to be sharing poetry from JW Summerisle over the coming weeks.

NIDDHOGGR UPON REACING A DEFINITION OF WHAT’S WRONG

girl. it lacks
human origin.

chaos dragons emerge from
the sea. illogically.
with no reason and no rules.

it’s sensation. sheer

bodies invisibly people
behind their buttons &

my dress doesn’t
have any left.

underpinned
by wind.

simply
ripe with

air. i
succulent
with compulsion

un-person my

body weight.
oppress this

perception
of my

flesh.

i would have been
an angel, alice.

all those years ago.

unspeaking by the
trees in hiding.
dapple light and shade.

on the concrete
where the paths

reach only
to the

trees.

lunch ladies
hunch the

branches.
and bite

off all their
nails.

baseline dopamine
in girl child lacking.

addiction paces
the human

quiet.
she would

live a
thousand

lives and
never

want to
talk.

curling tongues
fork the

hedgerows where the

weird children
walk.

JW Summerisle lives in the English East Midlands and often appears on TikTok @jw_summerisle . Their first poem appeared in the 2007 Foyles Young Poets pamphlet, and their first chapbook, kinfolk, came out somewhat recently with Black Sunflowers Poetry press.