Monsters

When I was a child I feared Monsters that lived under the bed,

I'd lay paralysed with fear as if I were dead,

Shadow-men silently creeping from all four corners of the room,

Ghoulish figures rising all around my linen tomb,

Leering from the shadows whilst I tried to sleep,

Those distorted grimaces haunted my dreams.

When I was a child I feared Monsters that lived under the bed,

Then I grew older and realised the Monsters were all in my head,

One I'll name Loneliness, one I'll call Self Doubt, there's Anxiety and Paranoia and many more cry out.

These faceless Monsters come to visit me in the darkest of dark nights,

Tangible and terrible,

They still fill me with immobilising fright.

I feed them and then I fight them and it always goes the same way:

I invite them to my table but wish they'd go away,

They sit there laughing & expose all of my fears,

So I try to murder my Monsters by drowning them in tears.

When the water torture ceases my Monsters declare war,

But however much I bludgeon them they never seem to scar.

The more I do battle with them the stronger they seem to get, and yet I grow weaker:

It seems my match is met.

When I was a child I feared Monsters that lived under the bed,

Now that I'm wiser I see I have been misled.

These Monsters are a part of me, part of who I am,

And the only way to quiet them is to become my own biggest fan.

Doing battle with yourself will turn you inside out,

You can't save yourself by plucking your own eyeballs out.

So stop fighting these silly Monsters right here in the dark, they're non-corporeal remember? You cannot make a mark.

Instead, change your situation, look at where you are:

Get out of your own darkness & your Monsters won't get far.

Drag your Monsters screaming into the bright, sunny day,

Expose them to the light and watch them fade away.

And when your Monsters come back to haunt you in the deepest of your dark nights,

Assure them it's a temporary visit and shine out your inner light.