Artwork © Robert Fleming

 

Son of Frankenstein

In the 1939 Movie, Son of Frankenstein,
the monster recognizes himself in a mirror.
He thus passes the mirror self-recognition test
(MSR), the basic marker of self-awareness.
He starts by pushing on a chain separate
but next to him, with his hand, with his shoulder,

ends by grabbing Dr. Frankenstein by the shoulder,
steering him toward the mirror, sees Frankenstein
reflected there. He forcibly turns his face. They are separate
beings, each trembling with the drama caught in the mirror.
He touches his own face, awash in sudden awareness,
then flails his arms as if to shoo away the sight, that terrible test!

Asian elephants, great apes, bottlenose dolphins pass the test
along with orca whales and Eurasian magpies. They shoulder
the blessing and curse of knowing what they are, an awareness
that pulls one out of Nature’s rhythm, that Frankensteins
us from our purest selves. Now we fuss in front of the mirror,
aware of others perceiving us, our outer selves separate

in the open for all to see, on the stage of public separate
as if in spotlight. Even ants have passed this basic test.
Think twice before stepping on one, knowing the mirror
has exposed it to us. Truly we stand shoulder to shoulder
with some cats and dogs, their domesticity their Frankenstein
which we have foisted upon them. Too great awareness

of self teaches us to define other. In our awareness
we cut ourselves from them, alone in space separate.
We carve canyons between earth’s children, Frankenstein
the not-self or ourselves. Whether we can fold back is the test
now, re-insert ourselves into the whole. Can we shoulder
melting once again into the all, despite the sight in the mirror?

The evil queen in Snow White owned a mirror
that flattered her in her beauty’s awareness.
When it named another more lovely, her shoulder
iced over to one she should have loved. Separate,
different for us all is the same choice: love’s test.
Can we become all, or will we the rival Frankenstein?

The curse of the mirror, the curse of the separate
selfhood, that awareness, our life’s great test.
Have I myself Frankensteined? What burden do I shoulder?

 

Mary Ann Honaker is the author of Becoming Persephone (Third Lung Press, 2019), and Whichever Way the Moon (Main Street Rag, 2023). Her poems have appeared in Bear Review, JMWW, Juked, Little Patuxent Review, Rattle.com, Solstice, Sweet Tree Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives in MacArthur, West Virginia.

Robert Fleming is a gay-man, word-artist, and scientist born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who emigrated to Lewes, Delaware, United States. Robert follows his mother as a visual artist and his grandfather as a poet. In 1986 he published the second psychological research study on gay men’s response to AIDS in United States. Then, in the 1990s he was a contributing member of the District of Columbia’s Triangle Artist group. Now Robert is a founding member and contributing editor of Devil’s Party Press’ Old Scratch Press.