Fitting Room after Gregor Samsa

Fitting Room after Gregor Samsa - Haven Beckham (The Athenian School, 11th Grade)

wore a skirt for the first time 

started thinking about gender 

exaggerated masculine costumes 

like a garbage bag full of hand-me-downs 

home never wore fighter-pilot goggles 

trying on a few skirts in the fitting room 

shedding the transitory 

skin 

which will become my nervures 

when I emerged I knew 

what Gregor felt 

the joy of scurrying all over 

sapien walls 

he didn’t know 

contained him 

for this violation of nature, 

Gregor was locked 

in a stranger’s bedroom 

while his loved ones prayed 

for an exorcism of his monstrosity 

I was lucky 

my bedroom door was left mercifully unlocked. 

As the morning glow caressed my strange new form—feeling its new contours—I wriggled free of my infantile chrysalis and flexed my tender new appendages. I knew that despite the fragility of my unrecognizable shape, I could rely on my body to carry me into the light. 

I flew out of the shell of my former self and felt the door close behind me.

Gregor was found dead in his rotting cage.