An extract from what is at this stage the opening poem of Section 6, 'Shaman', of Greater Matter

Story

Bumbling through the house

looking for

my next task

I turn

a corner

at a door, and almost

fall –

find my face just short of stuck in the paunch

of a giant –

the ogre

of

my Experience!

He glowers down at me.

Lucky the house

has such a high ceiling

(you can’t reach the spider webs

even with the longest

feather duster).

My heart is in my throat

and his huge, rough hand

is round my throat

squeezing tight –

what to do?

But before he squashes me completely

he says

I want your attention,

where do you have your dreams?

I point him to the bedroom

and nimble as a baboon

he ducks, moves slowly through the doors,

lumbers around all the corners

and then drops me,

sits beside me,

heavies my eyes

with his rough palm

and all

is darkness.

Days, weeks, months

the monster holds me hostage

to

his dreams,

and when I blink sometimes between his fingers when they shift

I see him changing –

blue and horned,

gold and maned, black and sleek

he myths the creatures

who once populated places

preceding Eden, even;

but again, again

he makes me

sleep ...

(Extract)

- Silke Heiss