Hello again, and welcome to tonight’s program
A wonderful show it is, for you that is…
A beautiful imbalance of provocative wonders
Simmered together in an elixir of intoxication
The modern day alchemist roams the night for the eyes of sensuality
The midnight occupiers of the everlasting void
A world you understand but can’t comprehend
A life you comprehend but don’t understand
The unsaid pleasures of private fantasy
The untold fantasy of malevolent pleasures
Please come in
Don’t be shy
We’re all here
Waiting for you
Yes this way
Keep walking till you see the door
Yes
This is the door
The door for you
16
Room 16
It’s unlocked
It’s ok
Please
Walk in
This is your door
This is your mind
This is your door to your mind
Room 16
Where were you when you were 16?
Do you remember that one night that changed everything?
That one girl?
That one boy?
Finding yourself….did it happen?
Did you feel misunderstood?
Or
Did you misunderstand others?
I remember only too well.
The stories I faced
The ridicule I endured
“You need to be punished” said the stepfather-person, “But since you think you are old enough to make your own decisions, here’s one for you. Now it’s either you or your cat. I can either gut you or gut your cat…decide now, Which of you doesn’t get gutted?”
I look up at my little cat, squeezed underneath his massive arm
I didn’t put it past him that he would hurt me in an unimaginable way
I point to myself, saying that I didn’t want to be gutted.
“Wow.” The stepfather-person says, “You must not love your own pets. Some person you’ll turn out to be.”
He tosses the cat to the ground and leaves to his room.
The next day the cat is gone.
What cruel manifestations we are of all our sins
What dark creatures we are, yet we are terrified of the monsters underneath our bed
The monsters in the other room
The monster that sits at your dinner table
The monster that beats your mother
The monster that kicks you into a bookshelf
The monster that strangles you
The monsters
The monsters we all have the potential to become
But do we?
I’d like to think that some of us can become angels instead
Not monster or demons
But some do
In fact
Many of us do
Many of us become the monsters we covet.
What are you?
This has been tonight’s program. We’d like to thank the academy and all who made this possible: Quarters, Jimi Hendrix, Ronald Dahl, Marilynn Monroe, Bret Easten Ellis, watches, Eastern Promises, A history of Violence, Daniel Day Lewis, Rebecca Hall, Cocteau Twins, tomatoes, graphic novels, There will be blood, red gel pens, gold frames and all the little people.
Thank you and please visit us again.
Not really a poem, but a writing exercise I developed. I treat it as monologue directed to an unknown audience/reader.