where tears may fall.

twenty-one.

I was always told monsters resided under my bed
I would squeeze eyes shut
And plug my ears
Hoping that would keep them away

But I heard them whispering to me
In the dark of the night
They stroked my hair
Oh, they seemed so nice

When I told my parents the monsters were my friends
They just laughed and said that there were no such things

I know they wanted to protect me
From the creatures that lurked
But the longer I let them be
The more they craved to make me another one of their handiworks

They began to shout in my ears and in my head
And I was left crippled, ears buzzing, I thought maybe I was dead
But then they would seem so sweet once again
And so I forgave them and continued to let them in

They painted me black
And clawed my body as I slept
But I always thought that they were my friends
And that they just had me in their best interest

I began to be strung up in their web
As they made me a picture of their perfect

One day, far too late, I realized that people were so wrong
As I tried desperately to fix my mistakes that I had made for too long
For I now realized that monsters, indeed, did not lurk under my bed
They had long ago began building their nest inside of my head

If only I had figured it out sooner
That when they asked me if I wanted to play a game
They did not mean a children's game that was kind
No, what they really meant is that they wanted to play around with my mind

This friendship, as they usually do, ended up in pain and
I know now that my friends had never wanted to make me better for me
But for them