Monsters are not the
giant
fuzzy
smelly
slimy
creatures that appear when you hear me say
monsters
we can’t see them
because they’re so visible
they do not live around us
they live within us
their white eye-pits
surround our colored ones and
hide beneath our bones
they are
your broken fingernails
your split ends
your foggy glasses
your infected throat
your crackling voice
that lonesome glare
sitting in your face
as you’re off in space
you can’t recognize
but that’s not your fault

i see my monster
and i can tell
through his
dripping beating
emotions
what he wants
shhh i tell him
but he does not shhh

i feed him
as do you
no one blames you
for monsters win
monsters do not go to war
they are war
tell me what you see when i say
monster
a cartoon
a movie
a person
a mirror?