Monsters At Bay
Halloween special
When we were little
there was a trick we played
in the folds and shallows of light
wandering in the dead
of afternoon hallways
eyelids curled up
bared to pink-shell softness
a secret socket city
its veined sidewalks — throbbing, pulsing parallels
of a body's machination
to conceal the parts of us
both laughable and scary
We waited quietly in the lurks
like fear with its hang nailed paws
b a s k i n g
in the delirious dominion of knowing
w r i t h i n g
in the hurt of exposed nerve endings
till we folded them back in
beneath their pretty surface of polished ice
and the eyes seemed to have grown twofold
absorbing what it meant
at once to be the knowing monster
and the unsuspecting victim.
Thank you for reading! If you liked reading this, stay tuned for more spook-inducing poetry till the end of this month :).
