Friday, January 15, 2010

Polyp

If you let words sit in you too long, they ferment and become a bloated palimpsest of rancid phrases and overfed sentences that bear little resemblance to the lucid ideas they once were.

And they make you ill.

There is a piece of work, a spot of writing, the thought of which once sent happy tingles through my head. It was my private pleasure spot which I would fondle with delight every now and then in anticipation of epic gratification. It was the perfectly located itch waiting to be scratched, the epicentre of a giant orgasm that my client was about to experience, the promise of paradise where all good prose is meant to repose.

So I admired it and stroked it and nursed it and fussed over it, afraid to let it out for fear of being overwhelmed. Sometimes the thought of it got so unbearably exciting, I had to put it away promising myself a quiet moment in which to really indulge the joy of expressing it.

Somewhere between then and now, It became a tumour.

A turgid, insensate knot of mangled phrases that have mutated beyond recognition from overstimulation and are choking my head.

So now I need to cauterize it.

What a charming start to the year.

5 comments:

Ben Ditty said...

H'y, there's still so much year to go. Don't feel down.

ramble said...

Well H, it often happens to the best of our ideas. Like over promising children they seem so hell bent 2 go down the disappointing curve.

H said...

Ben, I wish that was comforting. Somehow it's not. Not for a 400 word article.

Ramble, sounds familiar.

camerawali said...

"perfectly located itch waiting to be scratched.."
love this one!

The Darkling Thrush said...

:) for me, it usually forms in the throat. Unfortunately, feels like a malignant thing.

well-said.