Monster Maker
An eggman, hollow and light.
No angles on his body
so he has to keep rocking
to not fall.
The evil twin
of your childhood babydoll.
Under the skin of her forehead,
a grid of eyes.
You never realized that she was
watching you from your bed
until now.
Monsters in jolly costumes
that no one knows are monsters
except for you.
Most clowns.
Santa Claus.
Scenes of desperation
and loneliness. A horse sinking
into the ground, and only
one small boy trying
to save him, no one else
there to help.
The dragon
crying in his cave.
They are not hunting you.
They want to be close
to the one
who made them.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Whimsy and darkness.
ReplyDeleteThis conjured up all sorts of lovely and scary memories of my childhood imagination. Well done, Hannah!
ReplyDeleteNow if we could understand and have empathy for all who have monsters within.
ReplyDeleteSorry, an adult or big person view.
Do love your creativity reflective upon our childhood innocence. Where does it go once we've grown?
this sinks into me. it isn't about growing up and realizing that the monsters were imaginary -- rather growing up and figuring out they were all real, after all. i think the eggman is the scariest (and the boy alone with the horse) -- tied in a persuasive, oblique way to childhood toys (weebles?)
ReplyDeleteimpertinent suggestions: what if the title were "Weebles Wobble"? -- or something else that doesn't telegraph a message so clearly ... what if the order of the last two sections was reversed, to end on the image rather than on the abstract?
So...where are the images that inspire your poems, Hannah? Why don't you post them, too?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I like this dark little confection. A child's garden of freakish doubles.
Thanks, guys!
ReplyDeleteFireblossom--you can view the image that inspired each poem by clicking on the title of the poem within the post (the title under the title).
I don't post the image because I don't have permission to repost the images themselves (though most artists might be fine with it, it would be too time-consuming on a daily basis), and I'd prefer to drive traffic back to the artist's site. A good question, though!
The image that inspired this poem offers an amazing unwritten narrative.
ReplyDeleteThe images of the eggman, the childhood babydoll, the horse sinking, the dragon crying... all very vivid.
I like the impertinence of including clowns and Santa Claus in the same stanza as "monsters in jolly costumes".
and so we create that which we fear, or are our fears only embodiments of fears and so, if x is x and we have created x, x does not exist at all (?)
ReplyDeleteand yet the horse sinks into the ground.
ha! i just wrote on a post, you excite me, but you also terrify me.
xo
erin
this is excellent and very perceptive
ReplyDelete