Here's Janelle's
Poem of the Month
for July

Like June's Poem of the Month, I Was For My Daughter, this month's poem is about my drag daughter Bella Donna. My little girl was a self-professed monster whose spirit was too large to be defeated by a whole Transylvania full of villagers.

LAMENT by Janelle DuBois Dear Villagers, The monster is dead - you can believe me. She was my daughter, I wouldn't lie to you. The monster who, despite your best efforts, lived among you for a time: she's dead - truly dead - and gone. Dear Villagers, I, the monster's mother, forgive you who tormented her because you know not what you did, or what you do, or what you will do. God save your little souls. Feel better now? Dear Villagers, Why am I always so surprised at your timidity when confronted with any monster more formidable than an authorized fast food action figure? You poke and prod my daughter's corpse as though she could still hurt you. Did you know that she took estradiol with every meal, took action to gain a figure, became her own action figure, authorized - believe it or not - by no one? Dear Villagers, Bella Donna, the monster, is dead. So why do you still shiver in your beds? Why do you still shield the eyes of your little boys and girls? Could it be that even deadened you sense that the evil you feared in my Bella's exquisite grotesqueness is still abroad? Now in the dark woods, now at your very gate, now as close as your beating heart?