IN THE RENDERINGS OF WHICH THERE ARE MANY, or EVERY OLD MAN WEAVES A TALE ACCORDING TO HIS OWN LIKING
1
Abigail Chabitnoy
As to their origin, Davydov tells us, they had the strangest ideas.
There is a note.
Their origin had ideas.
They fell from the sky. the ideas or the people or
A bitch was the island, or
The island was a bitch, and or
​
brindled he swam; the old goat
​
Some hold both the dogs
descended there. still other. still
​
It is plain they regard [a girl] as
habit of the island.
That is, she was sent to the island,
the girl because / her sons
were dogs
​
That is, she was already an island.
(She is always already the island.)
/ / There are so many small islands [dismissive gesture, a wave] I need a bigger map to show you / /
None of them say anything (de)finite.
The people had doubtless forgotten the island, before
The people came to | be | the island.
The island was before.
There was always an island / a
Before.
Always she begins
at / sea
in a mouth
in a cave a mother buried
in the deep.
1
Lisianski 1812, II, 75
HOLES IN THE FIELD
Abigail Chabitnoy
The women are not there.
The girls are not there.
What if the sea were a mouth?
Imam taanga taryutuu’uq.
Empty.
Full.
Otherwise, “imaq.”
Otherwise, “a liquid contained inside.”
“Contents”
rising.
Take care, each
point of stress.
The word for the week is Woman. Arnat peknartutaartut.
​
This is only a test: how closely are you listening?
​
We must dive.
​
Everywhere I went to wash
my hands
there was blood.
Back bending
we dove
the words air in our mouths.
Without them you are not a whole person,
Eemaq said to me at the grave.
SIX LINES FOR CHRISTINE, MY BLACK-HAIRED GRANDMOTHER
Abigail Chabitnoy
Wind like this, Nikifor?
​
He went to war
He came home
We were married.
I never asked her what she dreamed
The nights before she told me to bury her
In the dress she wore to her only son’s wedding.
Wind, like this?
IN THE FIELD
Abigail Chabitnoy
They asked me if I was a citizen.
They wanted to know what I had seen/
I had heard/
this was only a test:
Look at the mark and tell them what you see.
​
⨀
​
Akarngasqangcugmek pilirluku,
a woman said to me.
They want more,
she said.
I gave her a tooth from my mouth
to cut the skin stretched before her.
​
She dug. With her mouth
she dug enough holes
in the earth she divided
with her work.
​
She cut the skin even
into pieces she divided
in the earth:
this is for your mouth
this is for your stomach
this is for your hand
this is for your rib
this is for your table
this is for sharing
this is for later
this is for the others
this
is (for) you
​
⨀
​
I see a well,
I said.
I showed them my hands
clean under the nails and
open
swallowed the dirt
under my tongue.
They let me walk away
with the shine
in my eyes.
They don’t look you
in the eyes, these men
these days.
I walked away with a garden
in my throat and seeds
on my tongue
to sow the earth
what I’d heard.
​