Dear Christina,
Do you mean the Werewolf Disorder, which is genetic, and results in abnormal
hair growth etc?
Kind regards,
  grasshopper

----- Original Message -----
From: Christina Fletcher
Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: New sub: lycanthrope

Arthur, your poem's driving me crackers because I've a vague memory of
seeing some slides of 'werewolves' in the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine in the 1970s and I think that there's a physical illness
that can account for this.  Trouble is, I'm not sure whether this is a myth
of my own.  Does anyone out there know?  Google gives information about of
mental illness but that's definitely not what I'm thinking of.
Anyhow, this struck me as such a sad poem: the way us humans find it so
difficult to cope with difference/deformity etc. and how we give things we
don't understand or know a 'dangerous' or 'supernatural' label.   I like the
way you've written it as a simple piece of observation - it offers a lot of
space for thought and interpretation.
bw
christina



           lycanthrope

between the market stalls he loped
soft pad of unshod feet
stooped low
drifted past
silent swift
startled shoppers
shrank away
stilled and pale in disbelief
doubted the truth of it
thin as a whippet
lank fair hair
a matted shock
rank animal reek of him
feral snarl of terror
and warning
parted the people ahead
hand of uncut nails
clutched white chicken bones
against grubby jeans
ragged to the calves
he flitted into the shadows
faded into memory
pub gossip
myth