monsters’ opinions

I find a flashlight in the dark

To be more terrifying

Than pure darkness alone.

Maybe I’ve been conditioned

To believe that the assumption

Of what lies in the dark

Is not as scary

As what’s really there.

Or maybe

I’ve been conditioned by society

To feel safer in the dark,

As opposed to shining a light

On all the things

I don’t want to see.

Because the light of our own flaws is blinding,

And the revealing of them is binding.

Or maybe it’s because I don’t want to see

What sees me.

Because then I’ll feel inclined to ask

The monsters under my bed

Their opinion of me.

Why did they choose to haunt me?

What made me appear weak?

Is the carpet underneath

Clean enough

For them to sleep?

Do I scare too easily?

Or am I just the right amount of scared?

And why are they not the ones to flee

After all the things that they’ve seen?

Maybe that’s why we run

From the things that see us.

We don’t want to know their opinions -

They’ll only scare us.