Are you afraid of the dark?

Getting ready for Oct. 24th spoken word poetry event. Here is another new poem;

When we were young,
How many of us cried out,
“Just wait until I’m older!”

Look, as the adults around nervously fidget in their seats as their minds raced to –
“Don’t wish this hell on yourself.”

Remember when Hide and Go seek was a game you played with friends?
Well now that I am older it has become a game I play with love.

Love doesn’t play fair. It’s like Red Rover, Red Rover
Except love clotheslines you.
Every. Single. Time.

Mom kissing my skinned knees when I fell
Became Mom trying to get me to stop hyperventilating
long enough for me to tell her
he doesn’t love me anymore.

When I was young,
it was the monsters under the bed that scared me.
No one warned me to be afraid of the monsters in my bed.
I didn’t realize monsters could look so much like men that I loved,
so much so that I started questioning love and not men.

We learned to grieve when our pets passed away,
but how little opportunity we had to learn to grieve when the love of our life chose to walk away.
“Hey, I can still see you over there.
Happy.
Without me.”

How we are so affected by the choices we make
and don’t make,
and how they control our lives.

Love scares me
You scare me
He scares me
She scares me

I guess you could really say
I scare me.

What a beautiful world we live in,
where we can face that fear head on
and come out a little bit more alive.