Sherilyn Hellberg
Nike-which received the Michael Strunge Prize in 2016-is an long autobiographical poem that deals with the experience of living with cerebral palsy in contemporary Copenhagen. Drawing as much on classical and mythological tropes as the language of social media and pop culture, Nike's sparse lin...
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| Published in: | Scandinavian review 2019-07, Vol.106 (2), p.66-75 |
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| Format: | Magazinearticle |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Nike-which received the Michael Strunge Prize in 2016-is an long autobiographical poem that deals with the experience of living with cerebral palsy in contemporary Copenhagen. Drawing as much on classical and mythological tropes as the language of social media and pop culture, Nike's sparse lines poignantly articulate the self-consciousness, frustration and apathy of disability and modern life. the last thing I promised was that I wouldn't write about you but this isn't about you even though you made me realize how desperately we were trying to make everyone happy around the dinner table in my family at a birthday party and everyone was there except the ones who were stranded because of cancelled trains and cable thefts in the suburbs and everyone laughed about how stupid it was that my mom took her road test when she was pregnant without realizing that I was sitting right there with my body as a real consequence of that story which is also a present: Caspar 28 years old and spastic even though of course it's too simple to put it like that because most things aren't anyone's fault but just a way to make connections between things that we don't understand but anyway I wish I was able to say it's fine because everything is always fine without it sounding like a made up excuse that my family doesn't see me as disabled so I went out for a cigarette I look back inside at my mom and I feel ashamed for thinking of my self as the only damaged body in that story I'm sitting with her on a beach a little outside of Detroit at one point and I ask her what it was like she said it was really hard I was 23 years old [???] _ det sidste jeg lovede dig var at jeg ikke ville skrive om dig men det her handler ikke om dig selvom det var dig der fik mig til at se hvor desperat vi forsøgte at skabe hyggelig stemning rundt om bordet i min familie da vi sad til fødselsdagsmiddagen og alle var der undtagen dem der var strandet på grund af aflyste toge og kabeltyverier i forstaden og alle grinede over hvor åndssvagt det var at min mor gik til køreprøve da hun var højgravid uden at tæ nke på at jeg sad lige der med kroppen som en reel konsekvens af den historie der også er en nutid: Caspar 28 år og spastiker selvom det selvfølgelig er for simpelt at stille op sådan fordi de fleste ting ikke er nogens skyld men bare en måde at lave forbindelser mellem ting som vi ikke kan forstå men jeg ville alligevel ønske at jeg havde kunnet forklare at det var fint nok fordi alt altid er fint nok |
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| ISSN: | 0098-857X |