Frida and Frankenstein

By Susan Erickson

Frankenstein, poor fellow, is a piñata
molded and pasted from bits and pieces:
brown leather boot, stick of dynamite, 
flayed skin, piano key teeth, brain
snatched from formaldehyde,
and a tarnished tinsel heart.

His fate? To be knocked and smashed
for the fun of destruction.  I've seen this movie
more than once.  But today, I show
Frankenstein my damaged paw.  He steps
from the screen, lumbers down the dark
theatre aisle, kneels before my seat and asks

that I come away, be his companion.
We slip outside the theatre, along
an alleyway to a small hotel, take a room
overlooking the street women at work.
I tell the story of how I became a monster
in one afternoon.  I show him patches

and stitches, the zipper of saw marks
on my spine.  Oh, damn, he is sobbing.  Even he
understands it's not going to work.
I dry his tears and send him back
to his black and white life.  
Note: Frida Kahlo became a fan of American movies when she was in New York City with Diego Rivera in 1933
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About Susan Erickson

In the process of completing a manuscript of poems in women’s voices, Susan J. Erickson has assumed the persona of Lucy Audubon, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Dickinson and others. Her poems appear in 2River View, Crab Creek Review, Museum of Americana, The Fourth River, Hamilton Stone Review, Naugatuck River Review and in anthologies including Malala: Poems for Malala Yousafzai. Susan lives in Bellingham, Washington where she helped establish the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Walk and Contest.

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