Favourite Monster

I loved you, Godzilla,

and my little boys loved you,

at the local drive-in

forty-odd years ago;

and their father as well,

who is dead now ...

but you, dear Godzilla, never die,

not even when you're attacked

with gigantic versions of the sparklers

we used to wave on Guy Fawkes' Night,

all sizzling and coruscating

and bouncing off your hide.

Poor clumsy Godzilla,

not even faintly humanoid,

but lumbering and alien

and rather dumb,

so slow you came across

as the underdog.

I mean, you couldn't do anything 

with grace, elegance, finesse or panache —

your special effects were creaky.

We didn't even speak the same language!

You were weird (not in a good way).

You were the big ugly. You were just wrong.

Yet there was something about you.

We felt you were misunderstood.

We blamed it on your upbringing.

We knew that somewhere within

you were really good — anyway,

we were on your side. You became

our favourite monster (even dearer 

than sad, persecuted King Kong).

What a pity you couldn't win an Oscar.

You could have brandished it high,

in in-your-face triumph: "This

is for all the misfits!"

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported, 2.5 generic, 2.0 generic and 1.0 generic licence.
|Description={{ja|1=石川県珠洲市のゴジラ岩}}
|Source=投稿者が撮影。PENTAX LX + smc PENTAX-FA★ 1:4.5 300mm ED & IF
|Author=名古屋太郎
|Date=2006-11


April Poem A Day Challenge 2014, day 27: a monster poem

Published in She Too, a collaboration with Delaina J Miller, Helen Patrice and Leigh D C Spencer (Kansas City, Content X Design, 2014) [See right side-bar]

Linked (April 2016) to Dark Poetry for the Cruellest Month: Poetizing Japanese Folklore  (Godzilla is modern Japanese folklore; I say so!)