From Beneath the Bed (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: Originally composed to submit for an anthology. It wasn’t a good fit there, but I think it should be fine here. Hope you enjoy it!]

Little Jimmy trembled because

    of the monster under his bed

But Little Jimmy trembled even harder

    when a monster came in

    through his window

A grumbling monster cloaked in darkness

  that smelled like stale ashes

    with a sharp blade

    held in one hand

But the monster under his bed

     used long claws to emerge

     and raise high above the intruder

     as a skeletal griffin who screeched

     at the far scrawnier monster

The monster from through the window

     paled like a frightened child

     then fled back into the night

    while the monster from under the bed

     received a gentle pat on the beak

     from a smiling Little Jimmy

And Little Jimmy never trembled

     at monsters in his room again

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