Monster
Dear Mamma,
Who is this beautiful monster with
four lungs and two throats?
At daybreak its body splits in two, and
each half walks around separately
At moonrise the halves connect,
first at the fingers, then at the mouths
As the monster’s four legs start to entangle, I can’t say
where one half ends and the other begins
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As they fuse, they rub and writhe, shudder and sweat, until
finally whole again, it sleeps in the dark, breathing
through four nostrils
Like you taught us, I incubate my kin in the hairy half of the monster for a few days, till he purges us with syrups and steam,
but not before some of us are ferried on seas of sputum to its other, smoother half,
where we can continue our carnival,
making her sneeze, cough, spew and sniffle
Sincerely,
Baby Bacterium, 2023
Published in Iceblink Lit (USA), Tap into Poetry (England), and Papers Publishing (USA), in May 2023.
Just imagine a man and woman making love. Now read the poem again.
