My people were not nice
people
They routinely sacrificed girls
like me
Back when I was a girl
But before I existed:
Briefly
Now
Sacrifice has been before:
Some even got famous
Self-sacrifice famous
Called to be martyred
Obliterate self of self
Fabulous press
While girls in Danish bogs had
Only their peat bound bodies
To affirm their sacrifice
And were forgot*
With nary a rune**
They are their own only record:
Goddesses of sphagnum moss
or
Overwrought concupiscence
Seeded by a corn god or two
Tacitus branded the Norsemen:
Natural born killers they were
To whom did he refer:
These early gifters, givers to gods?
Or Vikings in longboats, men who set forth?
What gave them the worth of said name?
Not all Danes were Vikings
Not all Vikings Danes
Sacrifices became
Then came back again
Driven by hunger
Seldom for glory or
Fame for oneself
These givers were clever
Understood to conceal
The remnants
Of a god‘s last meal
And so they did
Until the bog
Offended
Regurgitated back
We were everywhere
Back then
But soon to be no more
Like Neanderthals
Also forgot, nary a rune
Big heads, redheads
Our eyes too narrowed, deep
Theirs too set apart, open