Still Life

Birgitta Björg Guðmarsdóttir

Birgitta Björg is an author and musician from Reykjavík, Iceland. She has written two novels, Skotheld (2018) and Moldin heit (2024) the second of which received Fjöruverðlaunin the Icelandic literary award for women and non-binary people, and one poetry book, Draugamandarínur (2025).

Birgitta has published poetry and prose in Icelandic literary magazines, such as TMM, Skírnir, Stelkur and Leirburður. Birgitta is a founding member and lyricist of Icelandic band Ólafur Kram. She is a part of the poetry collective MÚKK.

Still life

you raise the breast

and let it drop

lift the other and let drop

lay a cloud-pink palm

into the small space between them

you are easily entertained

we hide small objects

within my folds: a pen,

a pebble, my capacity for storage is such,

i keep a button, a molar,

a dinosaur sticker, keep them for a whole day,

bring them forth and look over, roll a safety pin

in my palm, the slender iron

caresses, warm.

you put a coin under the breast

and i guard it, i go

to work, i go

abroad, i go

for a checkup, i am

rolled around on a bed

the coin still in place and you

sit by the window, falling asleep over a book,

you‘re wearing a pale yellow sweater, chin resting

in your elbow, outside: a cloud

stretches, contracts,

stretches –

we play

lift the breast and let it drop

lift the other, let drop

guide cables around the body

which expands. shrinks.

bulges, we pour pills into a box and count:

six at eight o‘clock. six in the afternoon.

we set a timer

when the folds grow fewer they fall

the knickknacks, one after another, and eventually

the coin, you catch it, guard it

safely, until next time.

This poem was first published in Icelandic in the poetry book Draugamandarínur (2025).

Translation by author.