Not an fanatical fan. I'm not the type who can obsesses about a TV series (for the purposes of this discussion, Dr Who isn't a TV series, it's a religion...) However I do check new Nordic Noire series out when they appear, just to see whether I'm going to enjoy them.
One of the frequent features of these series is strong, eccentric female leads, and this is where this particular poem stems from. At the time of writing, I was thinking most about Saga Norén from The Bridge (which was on at the time). However the direct references in the text are to Lisbeth Salander, the original Girl Who... (the films don't 100% do her justice: read the books.)
These are very different characters in several ways, but the big thing they have in common is minds found some way out on the autistic spectrum... which is another place this poem is coming from. I often relate strongly to autistic characters.
What else...? (1) This is skirting the edge of being a sonnet... (2) Remind me sometime to rattle on about "normal" human psychology and the various spectra within which we are all so carefully positioned.
The girl who...
tattoos dragons, kicks hornets etc and stands
in the half-furnished apartment smoking/staring
through the picture window while the world
fades monotonically into twilight and snow
takes the evidence. Somebody calls and she grunts,
eyes, hand and cigarette unmoving. Feel the cold as if
we were close, as if there were a closeness here.
We brush a hair from her temple, and click:
the side of her head opens to reveal the steel
wheels spinning and a quiet persuasive hum. Come
back to the front, see the eye, see the smile not for kissing
the face not wholly numb, and rapid-fire summations
of an intellect that takes no prisoners, sees no need,
but speaks: put the body-parts on ice for morning.
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