The ‘doer’ is merely a fiction added to the deed (Nietzsche)*
Nietzsche warns:
There is no ‘lightning’
that strikes
There is only the striking
No – thing performs this action
Only action itself
[She understrike] acts the part
And is stricken from the page
She is no longer subject
She was never object
She is all action
and reiteration
She is repetition
She is the sum
of all mirrors
repeating
an infinite version
A vision
of herself
for which there is
no original
[She strikethrough]
has out-done herself
[She] is all doing
and undone
[She] is in-deed
a fiction
written in
after-
thought
How can she
continue
To remain
Only energy
Light
particle
When will it be time
to strike
[She] senses
a storm brewing
Sarah Rice
* Judith Butler quotes the above from Nietzsche’s: On the Genealogy of Morals, and adds ‘There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender’ (Gender Trouble).
Sarah Rice’s poetry collection Fingertip of the Tongue (UWAP 2017) was recently shortlisted in the ACT Publishing Awards, and her work extensively published in journals and anthologies. Sarah won the Ron Pretty and Bruce Dawe, co-won the Writing Ventures, and Gwen Harwood poetry prizes, and has been shortlisted in numerous writing awards.
© 2019