Tale of Emasculation

Painting by John Alexander

Tale of Emasculation

As a kid
I neutered things
would doctor wasps
or draw the stings
of scorpions.
I'm talking
metaphor of course.
Not living things -
the livingest
were dreams
nightmares most of all.
I had such beasts
the beasts had beasts
that followed me
out of the night
into the living day.

I neutered them
in self-defence --
once I'd discovered
how the human mind
has tools to tackle them
by docking vital parts

In my mind's eye
dissecting images
I'd cut and paste
give twigs for claws
replace
hard spines and scales
with Grandma's flannel vests.

Against
the nightmare that returned
night after night
I'd work the image
as I fell asleep.
This picture
might be one of mine
a clock face of
eleven noughts
through which dark spirits poured
and weird eleven
or truncated twelve
pared to that single hour.
The clock
deprived of clockness

the wayward geni
safely bottled for
my peace of mind
which had been free
to run amok.
Still waiting to be corked.

David King

Posted over on his site Pics & Poems
Listed as #104 over on Magpie Tales 41