We say this, she’s a monster, meaning his wife, girlfriend, or the bride-to-be, he’s a monster, meaning a man good in bed or a puppy that chews our leather sandals to bits, and, they’re monsters, meaning a set of twin toddlers with dimples and candy sugar smudges on their chins. Monster, we call a caffeinated energy drink, a burger that weighs many ounces, a big-tire truck, a ball. I could say, I’ve a monster crush on you, but you’d want to know the gender, the age, the girth of such longing. I could say, I am a monster, this body, this open toothed mouth, these fairy tale eyes, the wicked thoughts turning inside. A monstrous monstrosity. Or just a monster, like any woman, a hunger driving her onward.
Laura Madeline Wiseman
Laura Madeline Wiseman is the author of Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience (Lavender Ink, 2014), Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013), Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012), and the collaborative book Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins, as well as two letterpress books, and eight chapbooks, including Spindrift (Dancing Girl Press, 2014). She is the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013). Wiseman has a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has received an Academy of American Poets Award, the Wurlitzer Foundation Fellowship, and her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Margie, and Feminist Studies. www.lauramadelinewiseman.com
Artwork: Kmye Chan, “Octopus Girl”
Website: http://www.kmye-chan.com/
Gingerbread House Lit Mag 