And in the spirit of Godzilla, and I
guess it's the poem that they're responding to when they put
Godzilla on the cover, I don't know
how you are but I have ideas.
I have things come to my mind sometimes
that like, what would it be like to interview Godzilla?
What would you ask him?
And so this poem's called "Questions for Godzilla."
What of the atom split heart we made
for you and the godly flashbang wrath, the anguished song,
the clawed gate, the zipper by which one of us
slips into and puts you on?
Your death we dangle like a carrot,
you're stunted son mewling always,
your ragged arch foes, your bed in rock, in magma,
in thick sea slime.
Our fascination still, our morbid heart
are scattering like leaves, our blood that once was horrible,
a technicolor ichor.
What of the glowing spine?
What of the toy stings of stock footage flames?
What of the jets you swatted dead
from the air with unmistakable joy?
You of the plastic leather, pebbled Plasticine flesh,
you of the palsy fury, you of the put upon by the semblares
and disturbers.
You, what of the life burns so cheaply into
celluloid we are charmed?
What of autumn?
What of the Earth we took you from?
What of the skies wounded throb, the sallow child
darkened in your shadow?
What of those 1,000 fates cut in coiling ribbons to the floor?
What of the heaven they hoped on that
glowed like your breath that sang only before you came
that fell quiet like a feather.
What of the shouted orders, the dread retreat,
the fall of a world built to scale?
What is pain to you?
Which, it reminds me, Ander, and you may not remember this,
but when my first book came out and I think you were using it
in a class or something and the student who had clearly
not really read the book and wasn't aware
that I was disabled, I came and she'd come into class
and she's like, why is he always talking about pain?
What does he know about pain?
And you're like, well actually he's--
you know the guy in the wheelchair who teaches here?
That's him.
And I loved that story ever since you told me.
So I came in and did a reading in your class
and I wanted to get a t-shirt made that says
"what does he know about pain?"
and wear it to the class but I didn't because that
would be bad.
It would be bad, right?
So so, all right.