EK Myerson

EK Myerson is an artist and writer, currently studying at the Royal College of Art. Their work explores vinegar, Arab-Jewish histories and disposable archives, through film, text, sculpture, drawing and curation. Their writing has appeared in publications including Osmosis Press, The BitterSweet Review, The TLS, GLQ, postmedieval and Wasafiri Magazine. They have a PhD in medieval literature from Birkbeck College and have held Research Fellowships funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Parker Library and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Their short films, 'submerged reliquary of a Kentish saint' (made with Sophie Mei Birkin), 'Leger-de-Man' and 'The Alchemical Androgyne' have been screened at the Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image. Their first book, The Desire for Syria in Medieval England, is coming soon with Cambridge University Press.

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List, list, O list!

For Bhanu

This is the discarded outline of a novel I didn’t write this year: 

paintings, pictures, ink, gold, minerals, lapis lazuli | water, salts, crystals, death, stars, winds | trees, bodies, margins, medicine, fabrics | spiders, rats, foxes, cats, mice, moths | discarded bones, decapitated pigeons’ feet, roadkill, pheasants | ambient fauna, deer, birds of prey, owls | visions in mirrors and through windows | antique furniture, locked cabinets, drapes, curtains | fireplaces, chimneys whistle | inherited paintings, frames, plaques | donors & spirits, scripture, classicists | cellars, the moon, crows.

The scene is like a prefabricated stage set, reused for a low budget film.

Instead of writing that novel, I wrote lists of words:

Indulgences, to release from purgatory the trapped and sinful soul | indulge me, indolent, individual, indignant, indigent, indigo, indecision

dissolve dissolution dissipate disparate

dispel desultory desiccated decisive

allegory a leggy blonde legalities

bees bliss bless blush beak beaker

cape cap cope capped clap clamp cat

zinc zipped-up zilch Zuckerberg sunk

constructed complicit concrete cocreate

concubine complicate con constrict coast

hectic Hecate hex heckle Aw heck | huck hick hock hack hake hiccup | muntjac cunt jack-of-all-trades tracked jack-in-the-box | cracker mannish | habit harbour cabin harness Hamlet

My grandmother had dyed red hair and high cheekbones. She was glamorous. While she was on her deathbed, her ex-boyfriend, an artist some twenty years her junior, came by with his new girlfriend to collect his paintings. My grandmother’s carer was scandalized, but I found it aspirational. Imagine still having sexual rivals as you're dying of Parkinson’s?

Sodom Sodomite sediment sodden mint | sod sold salt salted socked sack sludge

| settlement indigeneity occupation expulsion | extermination civilization colonization | inheritance inhospitable inhabitation | bad habit half inhalation exhalation exiled

sugar sagging soldier sadder sluggish | slake sung slung sought after

wine o'clock bloody marvellous express | yourself ritual rich Ritter Sport ratted out  | rickets picket retinol ratify rent by the | rented renter rich tool tuille ripped riptide

rehearsal reversal reprisal reprise rewriting | redacted resonate readymade ready to go | reckoning wrecked wreck wrack rock rocked | raked rack hearse reverse dispersal dust | grass light fringe fuzz floss flack slack | save the date since sent grant sank slate | sick slick slaked grazed grassed on grist | access accent accented prose graze | lip pass plaster plank grate flip bank tip

fragility bracken granted grass artful | fragile agile facile fraternal at all | agility ability Achill Island Achilles | heel real steel yourself teal pearl

netting Netanyahu nettles kitted | out nefarious knack nest nought knotted | hazelnut hazy chocolate choc-a-block choked schlock

vitamin vitiligo vital vittles veteran vast vat fist vase vote veterinarian schvitz | last lace laced lisp lake licked lucked out lacked locked | eat taste scent vinegar mollusc bent chipped | gravel wash foam froth sink sang

wrung wring wrangle roving raving | rogue drying out for softer reality | move desiccated less prone to liquefaction | I tell my knuckles naked inaudible to no one | paranoid that I look insane flooded | self-deprecating fluke flack slack slender

syllabus syllogism silliness | silken vest invested investiture caricature | sickened stricken strike-through soaked terrorist

magazine mackintosh matted mattress | magenta ludic loudly lamented luddite | laddish maladapted malcontent Loughborough junction

doable duo double trouble dabble double-dipper | diplomatic duplicate demonstrate almost done | dun spun spade spud dud flood fade fund | pound rebound resound communicate tax rebate | imitate tight-lipped lap luck slip drip tap tip tapped

end error erratic and androgyne hand | handy handmaiden underhand abandoned | sad oversight tantrum atrium gag abandon tandem

cenotaph cellophane cellulose

cellulite sell-out Sellotape celiac Celtic cultic

celebrity syllable sensible celeb brat break

cellular cellmate collectable collaboration

communication connective kit broken signal

magnet tat trip tack tip cat kittenish kitten heeled

butch benchmark black-out leather lab coat

weathervane vanity fair trash scared banked

tanked shun branch lashed out sent

received abrasive finished calendar

cylindrical command called-out selective

process practice faking fashion audacity collapsing

envy anvil anger involved aftermath aftershave | close shave hoover hover behave

evolve rehash archive evil event | each to their own time twine twain twist trust tranche

fading steam faint train | decoy deck oil decant decide duck dyke drink | sunken join up join in joints curl up and die dunk tank trunk

compassion companion company comfortable camaraderie | cameraman Kimono comparison claggy | craggy cranky croaky crusty crawfish

fatigue fangirl fantasy fold face face-off

effaced evasive effusive faggot phantom

submit surrender surrogate sublimate submerge

sub mitigate submarine sublimity supposition

suffice effort sofa effeminate sagging exit

subtle face sad sack flack seek sucked sacked-

-off sunk sent slinky sluggish certainty

certificate silt salty rind found tucked tricked

fact fictive faced-off fit caffeine canteen can't even

recant incantation unease disease misread

displease squeezed regret recognize reckoning

reckless ruckus shambles shoddy shaded shuttered

shacked-up upright uprise up-end surprise soup

elevation relief elucidate elfishly effortful

eventual evolution revoke evoke provoke

elope kiss Cassandra cooled off cruelty

crass watercress crushed ice teardrop crusted

gem-lore fixed affixed flux flex weird

wormhole loop tenderly remove unclasp unclench

relax return distance closeness connect4

noughts and cross-hatch thatched

roof tinder storm ash collapse construct

beams split but waterfall I meant to say

please come with me voice in the

rush of building works grind clank

can you hear me rust creak thrum

vox foxily intend skin brush grease oil

hunger danger wander wonder wish regret

fold in unpack retract petals pearls O mine

London and Cambridge, 2024

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