BY KYM DEYN
she’s only doing it for attention or to make money on instagram we’re all so determined to be monsters anyway she might as well come out of the water and show us how it's done how does she sleep at night what about the children what about my children how will I tell them about the monster under the bed how will I tell them it isn’t there that these things are all in their heads will someone think about children will someone think about god who made her this way who gave her permission
Interviewer: What were the deciding factors in coming out in this way?
Monster: I never meant to be there at all, only the lake was so beautiful and dark underneath like the belly of a whale and sometimes the water would be so very still the sky could paint it any colour it liked. The moon was much bigger back then and close enough that I could hear her speak. She only has a very small voice so I’d come right up into the air to listen and sometimes people saw me and grew frightened. One day a woman was preaching out by the lake, and I couldn’t hear her but the gods that lived in the lake and kept me company looked tired and small. Everyone keeps telling me things are louder now but all my friends keep losing their voices.
Interviewer: Is this a political decision, then?
Monster: I’m thinking about green light through the trees and the lake reflecting it up again and turning the leaves into a beaded curtain. How a heron’s yellow eye watches the shadows of fish dart here, and there, and it doesn’t blink until it plunges its head into the water and pulls out a quicksilver minnow.
Interviewer: I imagine you’ve enjoyed setting the scientific community straight?
Monster: I don’t mean to not be real sometimes it just happens. I think the world is stranger than me, only people don’t notice. I have loved every extraordinary moment of myself but it doesn’t seem to matter, tourists keep mistaking me for driftwood.
Interviewer: I see. Is there anything in particular you’d like to tell the world?
Monster: I saw on Twitter that there’s not enough fish in the lake for a monster so I came out and walked through the streets.
Kym Deyn is a poet, playwright and fortune teller. They are currently studying for a Creative Writing MA at Newcastle University. Their work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry, Ink Sweat and Tears, and Neon. They have been shortlisted for several awards including the West Yorkshire Playhouse "Airplays" Competition and the Streetcake Experimental Writing Prize. They are one of the winners of the 2020 Outspoken Prize for poetry. You can find them on Twitter @shortestwitch.