Omnicide, 437–454

Chapter

Colossomania (Giants)

EXCERPT

Anxiety holds the heart
With its tiny iron hand
Mud stirs in the belly of a giant woman

In the shower with their giant drops

Here
The naked sultan whimpers under his silken eyelids
Unhappy
By walled-in-giants in ether
Who no longer carry their whips in hand

—Joyce Mansour

We encounter our fourth colossomaniac amid three separate juxtapositions of bodily experience, each tied to a distinct organ or appendage depending on the specific impulse in circulation. What this teaches us is that the colossus should not always be perceived as a unified creature, neither overall nor throughout, but rather often emerges as a compartmentalized assemblage whose sovereignty is tied to a single branch, extremity, or area of musculature…