the subtractor

July 7, 2001

in bed i lie
trying
to fall asleep

i’m on my stomach
and begin to
swing my leg
back and forth

i scream with
immense pain
as a hangnail on my pinky toe
gets snagged with the covers

how could something
so small
so meaningless
hurt
so much

it triggered a memory of
an internet surf session
a while back

i pointed the mouse to my
bizarre folder under favorites
to visit a site i frequent
and found a video of a man
called the Subtractor

i guess there is a
sub-culture that has
bored themselves simply
tattooing the body
thus graduating to body modification

well Subtractor’s mods
involve self amputation of
toes and fingers

why am i telling you this
i forget

Posted in Poetry