Monsters

Every night,
I lie still in the dark,
letting the past engulf me,
Wishing I could somehow unremember

And I am again
That trembling child,
With a monster in her closet.
Waiting.

The monster comes,
wearing the face of broken trust.
It knows my name,
and where my darkest fears hide.
It knows the shape of my fear
and its texture,
and how to slip beneath my skin,
curl around my bones like smoke,
soft and poisonous,
stealing the breath from my lungs.

I still see him.
I still feel his cold hands on my skin,
his calloused fingers touching me,
forcing his way
into places he doesn't belong.
Haunting me.
Taunting me.
Breaking me.

Shattering my dreams like glass,
into jagged pieces of a childhood
I can't forget.