KNOWING SOMETHING OF THE BOGEYMAN

By Maddison O'Donnell

In my younger days

I thought horror

was the looming

monster in my closet,

or the gargling ghoul

crouching under my bed,

or the skeletons

I dreamt

marched down

the road towards

the house and

climbed up

the scaffolding

to sneak inside

my bedroom window.

I thought it was

corpses reanimated

in the cemetery

across the street and

hungry vampires

waiting in

the woodland and

mischievous ghosts

clanking around

with the bats

in the attic

and naughty

neighbours throwing

dried corn kernels

at the kitchen

window late at night.

but I am older

and now I know

that real horror is being

trapped in a lift

with a perfectly

average human man

who picks something

out of his nose,

eats it,

and thinks

nothing of it.

#DarkPoetsClub