The Time of Monsters

The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” — Antonio Gramsci

The old world is dying—

you can hear it breathing in the walls.

The clocks still tick,

but time has grown uncertain,

as if even history

walks in circles.

Between the heartbeat and the horizon

there is a trembling—

a space where shadows learn to stand upright.

Now is the time of monsters.

They rise from unattended fears,

from wounds left to fester,

from stories repeated

until they calcify.

They wear familiar faces.

They speak in borrowed voices.

They promise shelter

while quietly counting bones.

But even monsters borrow their shape from light.

Somewhere beneath the rubble,

a stubborn seed splits stone.

Somewhere a hand reaches for another—

not to conquer,

but to steady.

The old world is dying.

The new world struggles to be born.

We stand in the long, fevered dusk—

midwives or monsters ourselves—

deciding which cries we answer,

and which we become.

Contact Information: 

Nader Rahimi

Email: nrahimi@bu.edu