NVN Thursday… Pathological Narcissist: a Deep Dive in Two Poems

“The Emperor’s New Skin” by Dana Wall and “Museum of Cutting-Edge Technology” by Kenneth Arthur

THE EMPEROR’S NEW SKIN

by Dana Wall

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

*

At night, the spray tan must fade
like sunset on sandstone, revealing
the soft animal beneath the mask—
a man who fears his own reflection,
who builds towers to touch the sky
but cannot reach his own heart.

I imagine him alone in gilt rooms,
counting retweets like rosary beads,
his hands small as a child's reaching
for validation through blue light.
The weight of inheritance heavy
as his father's disappointed ghost.

The paper-thin skin of his ego
requires constant tending, like
an endangered orchid that feeds
on camera flashes, on the roar
of crowds that fill the hollow
where love should have grown.

Even his hair tells a story—
how it coils around absence,
a golden nautilus shell hiding
the spiral of ancient fears.
Each morning, he reassembles
himself from fragments of pride.

I wonder about the boy who became
this avalanche of need, this hunger
shaped like a man. How many mirrors
cracked before he learned to replace
reflection with gold leaf, to mistake
attention for the warmth of touch?

Watch how he circles his wounds
like a leopard guarding territory,
how he marks everything mine, mine
as if ownership could fill the space
where meadowlarks should sing,
where truth should root and bloom.

*

Dana Wall traded balance sheets for prose sheets after years of keeping Hollywood's agents and lawyers in perfect order. Armed with a Psychology degree that finally proved useful when creating complex characters and an MBA/CPA that helps her track plot points with spreadsheet precision, she ventured into the haunted halls of Goddard College's MFA program. Her work in Bending Genres Journal, Mixed Tape Review, Witcraft, 34 Orchard, Eunoia Review, and Sykroniciti confirms that words are more reliable than numbers, though occasionally harder to balance.

*

MUSEUM OF CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY

by Kenneth Arthur

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

*

When we paid the entrance fee
the sign promised “a glimpse
into the stable genius of our future”
but when the tour guide
led us into a room
	dreary, dark and a little damp,
brushed away giant cobwebs,
expounded upon the macabre exhibit,
Kitty For Dinner in water colors,
	I had my doubts.
When we were issued
	rubber gloves
	raincoats
	knee-high boots
led deep down into the building’s bowels
I knew we’d been swindled.
As tour progressed through gallery
of beautiful asses and large breasts
with interactive display
a soft mewl crept into awareness.
Before I could discover its source
we were whisked away
to view the prison full of Mexicans,
then film of disabled with full laugh track
	I wanted to cry
masked people shooting up disinfectant,
forest rangers raking leaves
	I wanted to cackle
golden throne atop a hill of green land,
orange statue straddling a canal
	I wanted to scream
then that sound again, a whimpering,
young boy crying 
	chained to the wall
just beyond his reach a door and sign:
	Now leaving Trump’s brain.
Sorry, Donny. I have to save myself.
I ran for the exit.

*

Kenneth Arthur is a queer minister with a background in computer science and who dabbles in poetry. Several of his poems have been published in journals including The New Verse News, The Skinny Poetry Journal, and Pensive. He is also the author of Out of the Ashes: Constructive Theology for Those Burned Out on Christianity and blogs at kenarthur.substack.com.