The closet is where monsters lived
I could hear them breathing at night
But during the day it was where
I could escape the real monsters
It was narnia, it was a spaceship
It was the womb, safe and secure
Where the smell of old timber
Old varnish and moth balls
Grew tendrils into my memory
Whispering stories of when
I was Flash Gordon or Nemo
Outer and inner space,
But at night the looming shadow
That fell across the floor
Was where the things lurked
Waiting for me to slip
So they could feast on my exposed feet.
There are skeletons there too
That rattle in the small hours
Of secrets given to the monsters
Of secrets the monsters, the real monsters,
Gave to me
And so I stay half in half out of the closet
Both craving the anonymity of its embrace
And fearing all the things that live there
Things I can never tell another soul
That I told the closet instead.