A LIttle Bit Dorian Gray

I am feeling very Dorian Gray today.
One thing on the outside.
Another, less savory within,
a bit Oscar WIldeish. Dangerous
laced with a bit of cleverness.
Not at all myself yet, this character shows up,
like a supporting actor in a play,
the one who steals the scene with an innocent smile.

I am full of such characters. Odd. Quirky.
always a little dangerous which is the opposite
of who I am. And yet, they hide behind the stage door
waiting to make themselves known.
This is what comes of reading too much DIckens and King
when I was young. Somehow it was the bad guy
who was most interesting, who had a dash of charisma
I have always lacked.

My life would be boring to some.
I write. I serve others with scripture and compassion.
I paint. I live with my wife and two cats.
I daydream.
It is that last one that gets me in trouble.
Daydreaming. Night dreaming for that matter.
There is an imagination of a 60’s drug enhanced hippie
(Which I never was) inside my head, conjuring
places and people that were never meant to be.
Lives and loves and adventures I was never meant to survive
and so I keep them there,

even if, now and again, they come in
through stage door right to steel a scene now and again,
surprising everyone, except me.
I have been living with this cast of characters for so long
it all seems normal to me.

About this poem

I live a substantial part of my life in a dream world, imagining things. Some make it on paper. Some do not.

I have a quirky sense, not always nice sense of humor that I mostly keep to myself. But now and something leaks out of door stage right and people (except perhaps my wife) are always surprised. Sometimes so am I.

If you have never read “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde, you should. It’s a delightfully creepy story that has become a dark icon in Western culture.

From that mess, this poem.

T