There are monsters in my closet,

            Fiends,

            Menaces.

They terrorize me once a week.

 

They wait for the chance,

            Lurking,

            Hiding,

Biding their time for revenge.

 

They stalk the dark,

Filling my dreams with horrors,

            Gruesome thoughts,

             Relentless fear.

 

One sits on a hanger,

            Its nest,

            Its lair,

Ready to squeeze:

An anaconda.

 

One waits in a box,

Submerged in the shadows,

Ready to swallow,

            To gnaw,

            To feed:

An alligator.

 

One hangs on a peg,

Long and lithe,

Ready to choke and suffocate:

A garrote.

 

I long to be rid of them,

            To hide from them.

But they pervade my sleep,

Turning my fantasies to nightmares.

 

I try to run away,

            To flee the scene.

Yet they force me, compel me . . .

To wear them to church.