frankenpo
I knew now that I had to make another monster.
—Dr. Frankenstein
His interminable body harbored
hidden men—
bomb gallantries,
warfare cognates.
The crucial interior, numbed
to turn the curse of affect,
thought modification
with unending character
limits.
A vessel of spinning,
obliquely propelled man fears,
and want-passengers,
sad monsters of all broke states.
His compulsive
nation of narcissistic guns,
grief men, shooting
home.
Wars of syndicated motion threading across
a slowly enormous realm.
That night, I ran everyone wrong.
I told the monster that I would make
a wife for him.
Even with centuries of variant
hyper-genders,
a hundred gender chances,
I dreamed too ugly.
My man components loyal
to a freaked system of father loops.
Body threw all.
The lust economy
carcassing mercilessly.
This need for
mechanisms.
For national monster workshops
that shake graves.
When I made the first creature,
I didn’t know how it would turn out.
A knowledge machine of silent
man children.
The dead gazing back,
and I, their creature.
from Monsters I Have BeenFind more by Kenji C. Liu at the library
Copyright © 2019 Kenji C. Liu
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.