For Dobby (Again)

a repost from last summer. it is never wrong to extol this little guy.  i find him sitting quietly next to me as i do my squirming, spazzing, and screams. he's more helpful than any pharmaceutical; he's pure love, our dobby.

*****   *****   *****

dobby under his brother fuzzbucket's lovingly applied rear naked choke.  dobby is always the wronged one, hence that haunting little star face, pleading for rescue. he remains 90% angel and 10% house elf.

For Dobby

The mucus sac of clammy grey

held you in its strong stone shade,

but who ponders the amniotic tint 

of mirky placenta?

(One is more challenged by its slime than its hue --

except that there was iridescence:

a window in, and a mirror refusing entry,

both; a slick uterine shimmer

repeating reflection's echo

between attraction and repulsion.)

A feral mother's long hairs spun

the moisture of birth into unctuous yarn, 

luxurious snowy strands coated

in melted sanguine maternal mystery,

the all serenaded by mewled complaint

as she gave up on you, the final kitten.

Liquid eyed, she hissed at last, and spat,

glared at us and at life's mess: her first four.

A wriggling membrane, half born, 

flashing nebulae of twirling bright whites,

intimations of very pink punctuation, dotted

outrage, hasty hints of pearlized claws and

anxious padded feet.

He grabbed hold with a ruddy hand muscled with curved strengths 

and gently pulled you from asphyxia, out of oxygen's debt 

and the dark, dank chambers of the queen.

He set the globe of you on my rough teal towel

whose one swift rub broke the holy seal

of the tiny one she'd given up on. 

The stars a forehead, a chest placket. 

The pink whorls a pert nose, perfect ears,

a confusion of paw pads --

but most of you as pearly glaucous 

as the original waxy package.  Tucked 

next a bulging teat, the warmth of dried

and silky siblings, you chose to climb

your mother's head instead --

and perched, drowned rat of a runt,

content, asleep, upon her silken nape, 

blind, cold, and born.

© 2013 L. Ryan

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