I’m Not The Monster In Your Closet

I promise: I am not the monster in your closet.

I am not the horrible thing under your bed.

I am not the wound which begins to grow across your chest.

I am not the ghost infecting your phone.

I am not the subvocalized chant which blurs your waking moments.

I am not the thing that lives in the moment just past this one, waiting to still your heart.

I am not the shadows on the wall of your room.

I am not the cold face watching you from the moon.

I am not the part of your mind that has always waited to do things you dare not think.

I am not the presence you sense in the darkness.

I am not the force which pressed half the breath out of you while you slept.

I am not any of those things because they do not exist.

They do not exist because I ate them all.