A-Playful-Path_DeKoven-web

My oral coronation
There I was, lying on my back listening to something Bach-like, my mouth locked open
while a masked man and woman probe my major orifice with tools of intimate discomfort.
Utterly absorbed in the rites of oral coronation, unable to speak or swallow, incapable of
cracking joke or smile or voice appreciations for apparent acts of cleverness, and I found my
self saying to, well, my self:
"O mighty one, let us find something to do with our impeccable mind that will take us away
from all this.
"Let's see, for example, if we can imagine an elephant. An elephant with very long, white
tusks. Tooth-like tusks. That are being cleaned by a uniquely adapted elephant tooth-pecker
bird. Peck. Peck. Peck.
"Or perhaps we can contemplate the truth that can be extracted from this experience, like a
tooth.
"No, let's instead meditate on the bizarre mating practices of dental hygienists. Of potentially
libidinous purposes that might be pursued by one trained in the use of a saliva-sucker.
"On the other hand, maybe a game of hide and seek might be best. I'll go hide.
"Or perhaps I might find some more obvious way of indicating my interest in the effects of
additional doses of Novocaine."
And there, my body stretched flat and open by the incapacitating machineries of modern
medicine, the state of my numbness reaching vivid questionability, I rediscover that most
blessed of all mental abilities: my Inner Playground.
For, even there, under certifiably physical duress, my mighty mind can take me away from
the all too personal now. I can, instead, should I so choose, talk to my self, joke with my self,
fool my self into some semblance of squirmlessness, even when the world wherein I found
my self proves so profoundly squirmworthy.
And I realize now that this skill is something upon which the continuance of my veritable
sanity sometimes depends. That without this ability to play with my self, to amuse my self, to
surprise my self, I could lose my self utterly.
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