Make Way For Monster by Adrian Ernesto Cepeda

It is a condition that

monsters do not perceive

themselves as such, who

hasn’t ever wondered am I

a person or is this what it

means to be a monster?

I have made it my specialty,

to thwart the magic of this

beast, man, you will live,

you will be rescued. We

must look out for each

other. Didn’t you know?

I have not always been 

a monster. They say

I’m a beast. When all 

along I thought that’s

what a woman was, and

I feast on it. The she 

monster is hardly a new

phenomenon. The idea

of a female untamed

against monsters, prey

on the passions of the body,

they prey swiftly with fate,

and take possession 

of the human creature. 

I didn’t want to be 

a monster, being 

a woman was the best

solution. I want to be 

unbearable. I am tired

of having hands, I want

to live on the sun. 

the skies are full 

of them A monster 

in the shape 

of a woman,. Both

shelter and warning,

a divine messenger 

at once, a monster is not

such a terrible thing to be. 

Personally, I’m a mess 

of conflicting impulses, 

Let me tell you what I do

know, I am more than a

monster. inside the hungers 

now I’m trying to dig 

deeper. Is it better

to be quietly devoured 

or to out monster 

the monster? I was

driven because 

I was afraid of what

was wild and indecent

in me. I wanted to be

like others. When I 

looked around, I saw

and heard a monster 

like me. Why is it

a monster? But you

have to satisfy the monster

that has loved you longer

than anyone else. How

can I teach her some way

of being that won’t destroy

her? And what I want

to say is that I am 

a changeling, half-

creaturely, people feel

that in her, the nonhuman.

people are afraid of her.

something in her inspires

a nonhuman attachment.

Then the other wilderness

turned all women into

wild wounds. She had

an untamed gaze like that

of a feral animal. Does 

she wander still searching

into her eyes, in her own

language for the wildness

once and for all? How 

can she bear the human

of becoming pain? Who

surprised the drives of being

a monster? Stirring inside 

her, she resists death.