Monstruo de Naturaleza

One bird sounds like a rusty wheel,
Shrieking every few rotations.

How does anything stand apart?
How does contrast shape resemblance?

To be monstrous is to achieve
Singularity of presence.

Louder, weirder, larger, sharper,
Somehow not like any other,

But never all unlike others.
The monster’s singular presence

Stays singular among a kind.
It is of its kind, there unique

To some absurd degree, to some
Extreme dimension—only that

Makes it monstrous. Draw a picture
Of monsters and feel yourself strive

To render each one uniquely.
A monster’s not monstrous painted

Among nothing but mere monsters
Unless monstrous, somehow, to them,

And then you notice how monsters
Achieve uniqueness resembling

Something that is not of their kind.
A monster’s likenesses are such

That they bridge away from one kind
By means of combined monstrous traits

To resemble some other kind
Or kinds, not less like but more like,

Confusing the categories
For a human observer’s mind,

Rickety tower of names for kinds,
Creator of monstrosities.

That bird sounds like a rusty wheel,
Shrieking every few rotations.