The Doctor’s Monster by Eileen Murphy

The Doctor’s Monster

Father?
She wakes up
on a slab
with the doctor
hovering over her
with a probe

& she knows that
she is composed
of scraps of
other human beings
sutured together

& that electricity
is somehow involved,

as are the flasks
in the lab that catch
the half-light
that falls through
the barred basement windows.

She has the impulse
to flee out-of-doors,
run naked
through the tree-lined streets,

maybe meet some
friendly villagers,

but when she tries to sit up,
she finds she’s
restrained hand & foot
by leather straps.

For your own good,
intones the doctor,

who knows a lot more about
villagers
than his monster does.

by Eileen Murphy, first appeared in Dark Ink: A Poetry Anthology Inspired by Horror, Moon Tide Press, 2018.

Editor’s Note: This poem feels like a certain kind of horror right up until the end where the emotional punch of the true monstrosity is revealed.