Winter A. Chen: "#041 Zubat"
“It forms colonies in perpetually dark places and uses ultrasonic waves to identify and approach targets.” —Pokémon LeafGreen
I don’t exactly remember when I became a monster. Perhaps I had always been one. Perhaps I became a monster when my parents called me one. I was monstrous because I grew too fast & too much. They tried caging me in church service. Making sure I only mingled with the right bunch of kids, the ones who would bend into broad suits & deep pockets. They tried piano, public speaking, swimming. Anything to hide the horns & the claws. It worked for a good number of years. Until the taste of boys woke something feral in me. Call it killer instinct. Call it demonic possession. What once lay dormant was a hunger for deodorant, masking the musk of boys sinning into men. Of those who prayed so hard to be pure. Fangs that protracted during P.E., eyeing the veins of someone’s son. Tongue that forked whenever someone looked at me funny on the train. Why do your hips sway like that? You see, I was tired of being someone’s man-nequin. Of learning how to walk straight. Don’t sit like that. Don’t cross your legs. You see, this monster couldn’t be crucified. Don’t get crossed with me. This monster learned a language laced with acid. When this monster spoke, the sky broke out in welts. This monster scoured the shadows for others like them. Wings, talons, spikes. For a legion of monsters I could call family.
Winter A. Chen (she/her) is a poet, performer, and goddess. After graduating from Nanyang Technological University with a B.A. in English and a Minor in Creative Writing, she is now based in London reading a Creative Writing M.A. in Poetic Practice at Royal Holloway. She was a '22 Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow. Her works have appeared in Stellium, Strange Horizons, EnbyLife, beestung, The Good Life Review, and Fabulist Tales amongst others. She can be found chilling online at the handle @themythofwinter.
