Matt,
Your poems are always an adventure, and your response to me makes me smile.
I did see the poem’s Daniel as biblical, and it’s why I Google-searched after I posted. Of course, I was searching to justify my interpretation, since it is known that we (only) find what we look for. Hmm. Ha. In a nutshell, from several sources, this made sense of my response:
Daniel was an interpreter of visions and dreams. He was single, reason why he escaped castration (he was not a eunuch.) But he was, indeed, circumcised, and not as a baby boy, but, according to experts’ calculations, between the ages of 16 and 19.
These are some of the links I stopped to read:
https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophec...g-the-book-of-
daniel/daniels-three-friends/
As Matthew Henry notes in his commentary, “Their Hebrew names, which they received at their circumcision, had something of God, or Jah, in them: Daniel—God is my Judge; Hananiah—The grace of the Lord; Mishael—He that is the strong God; Azariah—The Lord is a Help.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Dani...e=U TF-8#ip=1
God blessed Daniel with the gift of interpreting dreams, and he rose to leadership positions within the Babylonian and Persian governments. In many ways his life was similar to the life of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt. (See Bible Dictionary, “Daniel.”)
I didn’t know any more about Daniel than the lions. I didn’t know about him being an interpreter of visions and dreams, and I had no idea about any mention of his circumcision, so it was easy for me to imagine that, at least, maybe, I had guessed correctly. Oops!
I love reading your poems!
~mignon
**The new title would not have made me think of a surgical intervention.
Uf!