Tableau

I lay my head down on a pillow of barbs and shafts.
The feathers rustled, flowed into swallows, and flapped away.
My blanket stood upon its tassels and marched out the door.
I lay there in my own skin, which was tempted to flee as well.

My mattress bound me straight into its own jacket.
The roof came ablaze from a single dangling star.
Toes and nose became numb under a freezing sun.
"Mr. Brown, do you know what we've found?"
I looked around, and I found nothing.

"Mr. Brown, can you look at me when I'm speaking?"
My own friendly navel had come and grown a tongue.
"Mr. Brown, you've been very down."
The tongue wagged on my tummy, making its own happy trail.
"I suggest you smile more and maybe take a roll around."

"No, no, Mr. Brown, what you need is a drink and a wink."
The waxed moustache on my elbow bristled and hummed.
"I must insist upon this, and that you ignore that tongue."
The gapped teeth on my wenis chattered in rhythm.
I nodded along in wonder as the bristles danced.

"That will never do; only I know what you must do."
Plump red lips in crimson wiggled on my knee.
"A woman or a hundred wait out there for you."
"Put on that duck jumper and wade out into the fray."
My eyes faded slowly in and out of their shells.

"Mr. Brown, you must address me when I'm conversing with you."
The tongue lapped in vicious tempo along my torso.
"Mr. Brown, would you like a sherry or a cider? I'm thinking a whisky."
Chittering teeth clacked and bottles passed between them cracked.
"Mr. Brown, there goes one now; she looks just like she might cluck."
Red lips blew a kiss to some woman I might miss.

"Mr. Brown---"
"Mr. Brow---"
"Mr.---"
On and on the carousel turns, and the organs serenade.
Spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning.
Time ceases.

"You need to wake up now, Mr. Brown."
The uvula inside my brain waggled in time.
I didn't, and I couldn't.
So I pulled the pillow down.
I wrapped it so tightly.
And I never heard them again.