From the Shadows

Sleeping on the floor
between the two twin beds
of my younger children, resting
my head on a semi-soft Garfield,
I wonder about the monsters under
their beds, once under my bed, wonder
whether they ever startle awake,
call out for their parents, or want a hand
to comfort them. Are they really so scary
as our label suggests, are they really
just hoping we’ll say something soothing
so they can go back to sleep?

Waking up hours later, I creak
and moan from cold stiffness, howling
at myself for having fallen asleep
again on the cold wood floor, both children
long since hard asleep, don’t even flinch
as I stumble bleary-eyed out of their room,
blinking in the light, a beast roused
from hibernation, I’m hungry, tired
but unable to go back to bed, staring
instead at a computer screen,
typing about monsters that may not be
monsters, hiding under or on top of
or simply dreaming of soothing beds.