ABOUT MY POEM "MARY SHELLEY'S BOYS: THE 'MONSTER' SPEAKS" :
In the movie "Frankenstein," the "monster" is trapped  on a castle wall and meets his end. I've been bothered  that he never gets to explain himself in his last moments, so I decided to give him voice to do so in a poem.

Here is the text :
THE FRANKENSTEIN “MONSTER” SPEAKS

(Mrs. Shelley’s Boys and The Mob)

© 2022 Michael H. Bruno

 

IT WAS NOT THE PITCH-

FORKS NOR THE FIRE-

BRANDS NOR THE MAN-

IC CHASING MOB

WE MINDED, NOR THE CUR-

SÈD LURCHING GAIT WITH WHICH

WE TROD, IN MIS-MATCHED SABOTS

SHOD, NOR THE BAYING OF THAT HOUND!

 

IT RATHER WAS THE BURN-

INGS OF DESIRES

DISPARATE AND CON-

TRADICTORY THAT PARTS

OF US WITH ONLY WIRES TWIXT

WOULD SLAKE, WHILE OTHER SEG-

MENTS DRAWN FROM OTHER

MEN WHO MADE UP US WOULD

EACH HIS OWN COURSE A PART

TAKE TO SATIS—

FY HIS OWN USURP-

ING YEN

TO FIND HIS HEART.

 

A CACOPHONY OF “ME”S!

A DISSONANCE OF US!

 

ALL PARTS OF HIS EXPERIENCE

A MAN MIGHT HOLD INSIDE

UNTIL A UNI-

FIED “HE” MIGHT HOLD TO HEART

HIM-SELF, A SUM OF

ALL HIS PARTS: A HE.

 

BUT WE WERE NEVER “HE”

BUT RATHER ALWAYS “THEY,”

A CORPUS MADE OF STITCH-

INGS, JOINED BY WIRES

PULLED FROM HERE OR

THERE, FROM BODIES RIPE WITH MIRE,

A HEAD, AN ARM, A NECK, A TORSO,

A MIS-MATCHED BUTTOCKS,

A SLOUGHING LAYER, SKIN,

A PIEBALD STUBBLE, HAIR,

AND EYES THAT COULD NOT FIX,

BUT ONLY STARE,

AND THE DOCTOR’S JOKE

OF POINTLESS GENITALIA RARE.

LAST, FOR AN ADAM’S APPLE,

AN ANODE THROUGH THE DIRT-

CLOGGED THROAT TO ITS

DIODE, FOR THE LIGHTNING!

THUS NO ADAM’S APPLE BUT A PAIR

NO SON OF ADAM, WE.

JUST…THERE.

 

TO BE CLEAR: A MAN MAY BE A MAN FOR ALL,

BUT NEVER WE!

 

AND SO IT WAS IMPOSSI-

BILITY OF HARM-

ONY THAT FINALLY DID US 

IN UPON THAT CASTLE RAM-

PART, THAT TALL, THAT CRENELLATED WALL;

NO ‘TWAS NOT THEIR FIRE OR DISGUST,

NOR WAS IT ACCIDENTAL FALL

AND WAS NO INDIVDUAL FLIER, BUT A FLIGHT

OF US 

WHO CRASHED TO EARTH THAT NIGHT,

THE WRECKAGE STREWN IN SEGMENTS IN THE MOON-

LIGHT – ONCE BEFORE AND NOW FOREVER

SEPARATE PARTS,

AMONG THE WHICH

WAS SEEN FOR TRUE

THERE WAS NO HEART,

THERE WERE INDEED NO

HEARTS.

 

NO, NEVER COULD IT BE FOR US

THAT WE COULD STATE

“WE ARE A MAN!”

 

BUT FOR AGES YET IT IS SPECIFIC UNTO US,

IT IS PE-

CULIAR UNTO US,

MULTIPLE THINGS,

COME TOGETHER,

IN ERSATZ LIFE, TO SAY

NOW, AS THEN:

“WE WERE!

…

A MEN!”



Duke Bruno