Quadrophonic audio installation in a cabin under a Ginkgo tree. Lyric and installation Wendy Morris / Composition and vocals Mariske Broeckmeyer / Exhibition Alias / Netwerk Aalst / Curators Pieternel Vermoortel and Piet Mertens/ 2019

The Errant Womb

They say 
that in the middle of the flanks of a woman 
lies the WOMB, a female viscous,
closely RESEMBLING AN ANIMAL
that it is moved of itself
HITHER AND THITHER in the flanks
also UPWARDS in a direct line
also OBLIQUELY to the right 
or the left
to the liver or the spleen

that it is likewise subject 
to PROLAPSE downwards

and in a word
it is altogether entirely ERRATIC

E....RRATIC
E....RRATIC

Caused by retention of the menses
or excessive fatigue
lack of food
lack of sexuality
DRYNESS 
or lightness of the womb

Then the WOMB HITS THE LIVER
and produces sudden suffocation
as it occupies the BREATHING passage
around the belly,
gasping GASPING 

The ARID womb might move to the HEAD
to the HEART
the RIBS
BOWELS

It strikes the LIVER 
and the woman turns up the whites of her eyes 
she grinds her teeth
and saliva flows from her mouth
and she becomes CHILLED and some become 
LIVID

They say the most vulnerable are 
VIRGINS AND WIDOWS 
for they are not moistened
MOISTENED by male semen
deposited in their wombs
and they are URGED TO MARRY
AND GET PREGNANT

E...RRATIC
E...RRATIC

The ERRANT WOMB 
is like AN ANIMAL
AN ANIMAL WITHIN AN ANIMAL
A WILD ANIMAL
with frenetic desires
entirely WITHOUT REASON
WITHOUT SELF-CONTROL

It sinks its teeth into and CHEWS 
CHEWS on the internal organs
CHEWS like a WILD BEAST
A PASSIONATE BEAST
A DEMON with malicious intent

O WOMB
black and blackening
eat blood and drink blood
as a serpent you COIL
as a lion you ROAR

By all the deities, 
RETURN TO YOUR SEAT
do not lean into the RIGHT PART of the ribs
do not lean into the LEFT PART
nor take a bite from the HEART 
like a dog but STOP
and REMAIN IN YOUR PROPER PLACE
without chewing
as long as I abjure you

HALLELUJAH amen

E...RRATIC
E...RRATIC
the errant erratic wandering womb

FUMIGATE her
under the nostrils with burning wool 
and add to the fire asphalt, 
castoreum, sulfur and pitch
for the womb, they say, is an olfactory organ 
with a discerning sense of smell

SNUFF the candle!
SMOULDER the feathers!
SQUASH the stinkbugs!
ROT the fish!

FETID odours, rank miasmas, pungent fumes
will repel REPEL the womb 
from the higher places 
to which she has errantly STRAYED,
it is said

and a vineyard infested with VERMIN
shall  be FUMIGATED by burning hair 
from the head of a woman - 
and this is also a curative 
for the UPWARD MOVEMENT of the womb.

SWEET-SMELLING unguents rubbed 
rubbed into the thighs 
and applied to her GENITALIA
will LURE coax entice 
BEGUILE the ERRANT womb homewards

for the womb delights in FRAGRANT smells 

styrax, storax and OPOPANAX, 
resin, BALM and balsam
cinnamon, calamint and CLOVES 

They say 
women alone are possessed 
of a MECHANICALLY DEFECTIVE very
FAULTY BODY PART that moves of itself
that IMBIBES FUMES

Yes, imbibes fumes
AS FUEL, we say 
AS FUEL, womb says
AS FUEL, the errant itinerant journeying womb says
AS FUEL, the straying wayfaring wandering womb says

SNUFF the candle!
SMOULDER the feathers!
SQUASH the stinkbugs!

hhhnmmm hhmmmm
sniff sniffing
fumes as FUEL, we say.

The Errant Womb was written up as a lyric in the Cabin during the first winter of the Covid pandemic. It is a part of the Lost Volumes.