Toxic Partner: The Power of the Dog

 The Power of the Dog

 

 

Whoopie Ti Yi Yo 

Git along little dogies

 

 

 Peter, a brilliant effeminate ephebe

studying medicine in 1925

Spending summer at a prosperous cattle ranch in Montana

that his widowed Mother married into

after his father committed suicide

 

 

 

 

Phil, a mean butch closet queer

who's had his chickenhawk eye on Peter

from the git-go,

 inherited the ranch with his brother

Despite being a Yale graduate in Classics

he prefers to live his life as filthy Phil

obsessively polishing the saddle

of Bronco Henry a deceased cowpoke 

who first broke him in

 

 

 

At the moment he wants Peter 

to give him a hand

 

 

 

Shoving a pole in a hole

 

 

 

They make an odd couple 

But are their beefy drives as raw as they seem?

Each may have his own ulterior motive

 

 

 

Peter's Mother Rose has endured relentless cruelty

from Phil who won't accept her marriage to his brother George;

He has already driven her to clandestine alcoholism

 Perhaps his seduction of Peter is calculated

to further harm her

Yet perhaps Peter has is own reason

to allow himself to be seduced,

perhaps it is to protect his beloved Mom 

 

 

 

The morning after he bonded with Peter

Phil wakes up feeling very ill indeed

He cleans himself up to be taken into town 

for medical attention

 

 

 

But before he leaves he wants to give Peter

the rawhide lariat he arduously made for him

Phil stayed up completing it with some

hide that Peter had for him

neglecting to mention were he had gotten it--

a freshly-dead diseased cow

 

 

 

 

Love will get you like a case of anthrax

 

 

 

 

Withdrawing to his room

Peter ignores Phil's calls 

with the suggestion of a smile on his face

 

 

 

Watching George drive Phil

away from the ranch

for the last time

 

 

 

George shops for a suitable casket

 

 

 

 

The lid closes over Phil

Reunited with Bronco Henry

in the Western Lands

at last

 

 

 

 

It all takes place in Montana

as portrayed by New Zealand

 

Beautiful, grim, haunting,

as subtly diabolical as a Patricia Highsmith tale

 soundly recommended by RAY 

 

 

Deliver my soul from the sword; 

my darling from the power of the dog

 

Psalm 22

Book of Psalms

 

 

 

 

 

18-19 January 2022