kiss of the scorpion woman
the other night i dreamt i was walking through a dark forest, and a shiny black scorpion dropped silently from a tree above onto me. (i know, not exactly accurate in terms of scorpion habitat. it was a dream; poetic license.) i walked on, unaware. it made its way down my sleeved arm, until it reached my forearm. then in one single quick motion it clasped my wrist with its spiky black legs and slid its stinger into my flesh like a hot hypodermic. i was terrified. i couldn’t shake it off — the legs were pincers around my forearm. i tried to calm down and raised my hand above my heart, letting the blood drain from my extremities. this had the effect of depriving the scorpion of my blood (it was vampiric?). before long, the scorpion’s legs shriveled and fell off, one by one. like brittle black flower petals they fell, rattling like hollow jet scarabs as they hit the ground. the stinger fell out too. it left behind a horrific grey lump of poison knotted below my wrist on the inner part of my forearm. other than my hand feeling a little cold from the injected toxins, i was all right.

i’ve had dreams before which incorporated sensations from the waking world into my sleeping subconscious one. in this case, i think one of the kittens was play-fighting with my arm, scratching lightly with her claws and maybe sinking her kitten teeth into me.