Creature Feature #2

Creature Feature #2

 

Eating popcorn in front

of a black-and-white television,

my fingers drenched in

melted butter and iodized salt.

 

The Bride of Dracula

has made her fatal mistake,

while Frankenstein’s monster

 

only wants acceptance

from a crowd intent

on his eradication.

 

Next week, the Mummy

will lumber across my screen,

mindless as a drugged cow,

 

and I can stay up as late as I want,

at least until the test pattern

emerges. I watch everything,

 

the late-late news, the grand finale:

a rendition of the Lord’s Prayer

in sign language. Turning off

the television feels like saying goodbye

 

to an old friend I’m not sure

I’ll ever see again–or if I do,

one of us may have changed

into a creature no one can recognize.

 

I am already different:

my bathroom mirror shows a face

that has lived through

 

multiple bouts of terror,

and I haven’t even begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Creature Feature #2

  1. Ummmm…I am not sure I can do this piece justice. I could easily conjure sitting beside you through this (well, except for the fact that I was afraid of scary movies!). The memories evoked through the popcorn’s taste, the black and white tv, the National Anthem, and so on led to a climactic ending that can often, indeed, be frightening to look upon.

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