Go to Sleep

a creak in the night makes the bedroom feel

like a dungeon below a castle, fit for prisoners

rather than someone who just wants to sleep,

and even the small night light doesn’t stop

the shadows from creeping up the wall.

twenty years old, and you should be done

with all the ghouls that go “bump” in the night,

but sometimes you still imagine a land below

your bed frame, ready to swallow you up and

never bring you back to the realm of the living.

it’s silly, maybe, something that you would never

dare tell your friends, in passing or in confidence,

because you could just picture the onslaught,

whether online or otherwise, outing you as

twenty years old going on seven or six.

but still every night you peek at the dust bunnies

and hope they really never do come to life—

like all the night terrors you left behind—

because it’s one thing to fear monsters

and it’s another to know they’re really there.