duane katene

Neon Signs is the life of Damian King as a sexual abuse survivor. He details this as a series of journal entries which span six years of his life. These express through fragmented thought, short stories and poetry what it feels like to have been sexually abused and how that impacts every aspect of his life. It is within these entries that he often describes himself as a neon sign because his childhood sexual abuse has attracted everything to him from suicide ideation to addiction and anxiety.

Earlier entries of his journal describe in flashbacks, images of his sexual abuse, his life after it, as well as his internal struggles to accept what has happened and to accept himself. Later entries describe more his external world and how that is affected by his childhood sexual abuse. In these entries he talks about his jobs, his educational pursuits, and his relationship with his wife and children.

This is one man’s journey of self-discovery where no thought or feeling is left unrecorded; whether that humiliates Damian or causes further pain. Each word, each sentence is an unapologetic and an uncensored look at the world through the eyes of a male sexual abuse survivor.