Zoe Williams

Gorgo

still waters hold the slow writhe of

stagnant poisons . you would be mistaken

to think them dormant . there’s nothing

inert in quiet oozing . the lesser finger .

little . the minor limb . the golden sap of

your demise . burning piss and liquid

gold . imbibe . drown in feral salt slut .

delicately wriggle tantalise and tickle .

little worm . salt slut . a little worn . a

little warn tendrilled to the promise . to

the wrath . the hag in fishnets and mules .

the patent sheen of misbegotten beams .

moonshine’s water mirrors truth right

back at you as you freeze . there you go .

drink your own poison . the one you

refuse to see . watch me watch you and

show you what I see . the horrifying

beauty of truth . deny deny and calcify . I

laugh until I wail fully fully full of the

power to be all of it . all that I am

eternally haunts you . I dare to show

you . whiplash of snakelocks . anemone .

to suck you dry out of your shell . your

sweet meat is mine . full of desire and

foreboding . still I say . barely wriggling .

insatiable . I rupture through your

composure . power is undying when raw

when true when full . call me femme

fatale horror femme . monstrous . I don’t

need to thread your fate . It’s you that

tendrils to me . lament’s magic my sisters

mourn . drown in their song . delicately

finger yourself . haunted by the wail .

long for the laughing snake to take you

over . writhe slow . ride as you pluck the

manes . tangle in your burning sap .

drink the liquified beastly urine of your

envy . dare to love what lies beneath the

sea . the humble surrender to your own

monster . the opposite of complacency

my dear . do not make mistakes . the

suddenness of touch . there . the mortal

beauty of your salt . in another time .

every time . fetishise my limbs for your

primal arousal . finger my worms . a little

worn . tantalise . you cannot drink what

you cannot digest without choking . you

cannot kill what lives inside you unless

you see it . my chipped nails . my dark

cape . my strawberry lace . my slut ways .

I titillate . the horror of your own thirst .

don’t I tickle you .

—Daniella Valz Gen, December 2021

Credits:

Film Tendresse, Tendril (Worms’ Meat):

Music composed by: Susu Laroche

Camera: Amy Gwatkin

Editor: Rosie Taylor

Animations: Adam James Sinclair

Colourist: Phillipp Morozov

Spund Mastering: Tommie Introna

Thanks to: Algol, Amy Gwatkin, Susu La Roche, Rosie Taylor, Francesca Anfossi and Rochester Square, Freya Field-Donovan, Daniella Valz Gen, Clare Lynch, Rebecca Harvey, Deniz Ünal, Anchor Studios, BlackShuck Film Coop, Foundation Thalie, Snake lock Sea Anemones, Leonardo Cimolin, the landscape of West-Penwith Cornwall.