One morning I woke up
I became a monster
I told my heart
appearance doesn’t matter
I told my heart
It didn’t listen
The neighbours’ children
They screamed
They grabbed their mothers’ legs
like I was going to snatch the ground from under them
Mothers shaking
Fathers grabbing sticks
bottles
anything sharp
anything that could put a monster down
Windows opened
Stones came
I was just walking
Dogs barked
Of course the dogs barked
Then a drunkard stumbled past me
brushed my arm
didn’t flinch
didn’t run
looked me dead in the eye and said
“Lovely costume”
He walked on
He didn’t know it was permanent
He didn’t know
He was the only one who didn’t know
and he was the only one who wasn’t afraid
I had fangs
I had a horn like a unicorn gone wrong
My face was the kind of face
you don’t want to see first thing in the morning
But my memory intact
My thoughts clear
My heart no vile thing in it
No hunger to loot
No rage to attack
No reason to shoot anyone
I didn’t do anything wrong
I just woke up like this
The police came
The reporters came
The cameras
the lights
the questions
all of them came
Hands up
I raised them
I said I haven’t hurt anyone
I said it honestly
They put me in a cell anyway
Headlines read
Monster loose in the city
Monster
Just for being
Just for the face I woke up in
Doctors came
Scientists came
They poked
and measured
and concluded
Monster virus
Unknown source
Quarantine immediately
Pitch dark
Somewhere no one had to look at me
I yelled
until my chest split open
until there was nothing left of the sound
and then I opened my eyes
And I was just me again
Just me
In my bed
In my skin
Oh
Such a nightmare
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