World Dream Bank: Praise the Dancing Goons!

World Dream Bank home - add a dream - newest - art gallery - sampler - dreams by title, subject, author, date, places, names

Praise the Dancing Goons!

Dreamed 2008/10/16 by Chris Wayan

Their boss is eight feet tall. His two
enforcers are soft-shoe
experts in that ancient martial art:
tapdance fu.
Punch a man in the face, scold, dance,
kick him, question, slap tap dance
until he agrees to obey. They shove and
herd him through
the Labyrinth toward a goal he dreads.
I feel for this stoic resister, I do,
but fear to let my sympathy show.
For these two
do so love to hurt:
Tap tap PUNCH!
Tappety tap PUNCH!
At last I find courage, 'admiringly' blurt
"Amazing technique! Where did you
study?" Those two
thugs beam. "At Wyoming U.!
We were classmates." So dancing goons
love praise. Do bosses too? I try
my kitten cunning on the hulking guy
behind. Hide outrage, fake respect,
and yep, their boss appreciates
kudos too.
Courteous if I just enthuse.
Well, well! Just when did I learn
women's ancient martial art:
adulation fu?
Data-collect is all I do. Don't dare
ask why they beat the guy--not yet.
For getting goons to talk not hit,
is a giant leap for today;
though My Three Thugs sure indicate
I have some soulwork, way
deeper ugly soulwork...
Shadow work to do.

Two tap-dancing thugs and their huge boss beat up a man; sketch of a nightmare by Wayan.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

Goons, intimidation:
1. I just read Irshad Manji's The Trouble With Islam, about growing up among "moderate" Muslims in Canada--she says non-fanatics aren't silent from apathy, but because their dads, uncles and cousins beat them up. "The Trouble With Islam" is goons.
2. That relentless "oo" rhyme: an unconscious tribute, echoing Sylvia Plath's furious poem "Daddy"--about abuse too.
3. Tall guy with goons: this January, I dreamt a tall, arrogant writer said "If you don't sign up for grad school this fall, my goons will beat you up." I didn't--and fell ill in September. Ah, but now (while still hitting me with bouts of fever--yeah, that'll get me in grad school!) they're talking to me. Jung'd be proud. Yay.
Tap dance thuggery: Alex committing dance-murder in A Clockwork Orange?
University of Wyoming: Irshad Manji emphasized Islam's gay-bashing, reminding me of those Wyoming gay-bashers who strung their victim up on a fence to die.
Brutality: I grew up battered. Not at home, at school. All in the open. Rare then, in a quiet suburban school. My teachers did nothing, though some knew. I was singled out not for race or sex but for beliefs: I'd been taught violence was wrong and wouldn't fight back. Gandhi not Columbine. So my current flare-ups of illness evoke deep memories of bashing
My Three Thugs: echoes an old sitcom, My Three Sons, in syndication when I was being bashed by normal boys like them.
Shadow: Jung's word for dreamfigures embodying what your conscious denies--in my case, the rage I felt for my batterers. I still mistrust men. The dream suggests that rage makes me sick.
This is Dreamverse #34. Every week, a dream-poem! I can't write one a day--not ones like this at least. We'll see how this slower pace goes.

LISTS AND LINKS: dance - violence - threats & bullying - self-defense - butch & femme - truth & lies - tricksters - manners - pride & humility - Islam - fanatics - prejudice - pacifism - healing from abuse - dream poetry - the Dreamverse project - the next Dreamverse: Whose Dream Was It? - same dance-abuse-trio with a sexchange: The Go-Go Gang - more dream-kicks: Kick the Faerie Bell, Clone Breakup, Entwined, Kick Her, Mahakala, Kick the President

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites