Monsters Live Under My Bed

A Poem by Mara

A look at the purpose of monsters under beds.

Monsters live beneath my bed
As a child,
That's what I said.
Yet, the more I age
The more do they
In number and force
And in the ease to create.

My nights are spent
With eyes pinned wide
By crosswords
And projects
Never to be complete.
All remain intact,
All remain attempts
To avoid
The easy, greasy monsters
Living beneath my bed.

They call my name,
I tug away,
Yet as nights turns to day
My body gently forces its way
Into a deep
And unrelenting
Sleeping state.

Here I meet them,
Tonight and again,
The monsters living beneath my bed.

His name is Debt,
Her name is Stress,
His name is Love
And there goes the one called,
Letters Not Sent,
While over here we meet
Dreams I've Not Yet Met.

He is The Apologies
I've Yet to Instate,
She is Embarrassment,
And he is Regret,
And there is the
Math homework
I never did do,
The one I assumed
I never would use.
Tell that to tax form 1072.

They taunt me and they haunt me
With every shallow breath,
"How shall we torture him again
This fine empty and night!"
Love giggles aloud.
"Kick the bed!"
Shouts debt,
"Get into his head!"
Screams Dream I've Not Yet Met.

An older voice ripples
Above the rest.
Croaking and crackling
Old Stress begins to speak:

"Ease between his bones,
Ooze between his strains,
And reside within
Every muscle of his nape
And bend of his spine.

Burrow softly
Underneath his skin.
And pleasure him,
Kindly,
With more pains and noise
Than he can begin to perceive."

I limp leap
Straight out of bed
To howl from the window,
Like a tormented mutt
Wasting away in the streets:

"Heed my warning!
Let your burdens go;
For ever ill-deed you do,
And deed un-done,
Closely follows you,
Your every breath
And every step
With a scoff and a skip.
It breeds another easy-face demon,
Living and gleaming,
Beneath your bed.

Know your own when I say
They are much scarier than those
You met as a child.
They laugh and smile
And state it with such guile:

'Thank you for giving us
Into your frame.
We're here to stay,
To slowly eat you away
Shred by shred
And haunt, forever,
Both your grave
And your name'

Sweet friends mine!"
I continue to plead
And proclaim to no one I see,
Recoil from the comforts of
Distractions and weeps.
Take the time,
Battle the easy-eye monsters
Living beneath your bed

Before their parasitic tendencies
Render you little more than
The walking dead.