Gabrielle Langley

‍ ‍

Dröbnitz Girl

specimen discovered 1939, East Prussia
I am a bricolage of bone

‍ ‍mummified remains pulled from a bog

sphagnum and peat, handmaiden of moss                                                           

Iron Age    Hallstat period
‍ ‍twelve to fourteen-years old at time of death

the scientists will find flower petals

‍ ‍well preserved in the gut

along with pollen, ivy stems, and parasites

‍ ‍pollen suggesting she died in spring

there were always food shortages      

‍ ‍evidence of severe malnutrition

my teeth chattered behind blue lips

‍ ‍found with arms crossed tightly over chest

 my eyelids trembled behind milk-pale lashes

‍ ‍wrapped in fur

always shivering, winter had grafted silver onto my skin                                                                              

‍ ‍due to high tannic acid content of burial location
‍ ‍internal organs remain intact for x-ray analysis

my parents wrapped me in lambswool
tied a charm and a hair comb to my wrist
lowered me gently into the bog

‍ ‍regrettably     lower limbs dislocated from                                                                                  pelvis during excavation     unable to retrieve intact

when the scientists pull me with rope
I feel the bog hold on to my legs,
the soft wet moss folding over my ankles

Gabrielle Langley is the author of Fairy Tale (Sable Books, 2023) and Azaleas on Fire
(Sable Books, 2019). She has won the Lorene Pouncey Poetry Award and the Vivian
Nellis Memorial Award for Creative Writing. Ms. Langley was also a spearhead and co-
editor for the anthology Red Sky: Poetry on the global epidemic of violence against
women (Sable Books, 2016). Additional information available at
www.gabriellelangley.com.