Tall, lanky, muscle-less mess Couldn't dribble a ball across the court if his life depended on it Curly haired pubescent Nephilim Always the last to be picked by either team Neither knew What I'd do For a dollar Or my tricks with Oujia boards and magnets Begging money from mom and dad To buy Famous Monsters magazine Stills ancient even then of frankenstein's creation Count Dracula, werewolf and wolf man Terrifying beings from beneath the ground Or coming down out of the sky Grotesqueries so appalling You had to keep looking, you couldn't stop For all their mystery at least we recognized most of them We loved some of them Or maybe even empathized They didn't seem as dangerous as my tormentors Though they would surely frighten the living day lights out of them Like a sordid copy of True Crime, it's pulp pages stained with ink that portrayed REAL death I felt I was in unfamiliar territory Dangerous and ever present Hopping straight from the pages To the real world The walk home is always too long To toss the monster magazine into the box that contained the other 16 issues I'd managed to collect To put a record on the stereo Lie back in bed Stare at the ceiling fan Listen to "Tubular Bells" And try not to think of "The Exorcist" Or the morons at gym practice the next day.