1. (white man’s ghoul / april 28 2015)
translated from the Norwegian by Gabriel Gudding
the history of boats begins in the far north
on a southfacing shore here we see a man with a fake beard
madeup to look weatherbitten standing with his back to us
knocking on pine trunks bursting with pitch
with an ax haft of pine saying scared trees
make the best boat timber all boats begin with someone standing
kneehigh in the surf which in my language means mother of all borders
which in your language means that which no fence can encompass
our respective republics totally refused to sponsor this film
they don’t want to know how it ends so i turn toward the camera
and read my manifesto the first time the earth was discovered
it was the second fall of man we thought it was the sea itself
that bade us take all that we found on the trip from here to paradise
where we ourselves were snakes and pretended we were humans
and ate and ate a bitter lesson it was the third time
the world was discovered that i was lying all alone naked and shitfaced
while the others sang and tore the flesh from your mom’s body
after that i grew blind to the world up until your grandpa (peace be upon him)
asked me at a party who are we who are you really
behind his back over his shoulder i saw the christmas tree’s glinting baubles
hanging so poor and cheap in its popcorn bunting
the fourth time the day after you chased me
into the sea shouting teach yourself to swim
the best boat’s already wet you were hard to read
already an adult i was as proud as i was scared
and i swam away the fifth time
i waved with glow sticks from a raft
do i get to come home again and i’d hoped it was you
who had answered you are forgiven but it was my grandchildren
who led me ashore and showed me your grave they said you had said
that i would come back certainly bearing gifts
for which they should say thanks and be sure to give them in turn
to the poor the sixth time i learned your language
i read ever so slowly the books where i myself am the murderer
the seventh time i wrote a book as a response to all these books
my second home my third life it was quite ahead of its time
and was most unfairly overlooked the eighth time i have turned gray
and want like few others to write auto-bio-graphically as a
talkative transparent student dreaming of throwing stones
at the cops joining every demonstration while i scream
i am way too old to go to school all of which is in your book
which i was instrumental in writing i also wrote poems in my youth
and discovered the world in fact yes one very last time
when i was going home to die but got lost and ended up here
From Friends with Everyone (Action Books, 2024) by Gunnar Wærness, translated by Gabriel Gudding. Copyright © 2024 by Gabriel Gudding. Reprinted by permission of the publisher and author.