Fear

Digging
we go deeper,
the pain and the fear of childhood,
stumbling into manhood--
the darkness of it all
flooding the room.

Wrenching, writhing pain
pulled out of our guts
impaled on my brothers’ spears, lances,
lightning bolts, my magic arrow--
out, now, where we can see it,
and call out its vile name.

The bogeymen of the night,
monsters under my childhood bed,
stalk me in my dreams--
I call them by their names now
and grab my arrow and my bow
and shoot them to the moon--
finding sleep at last.

--Neal Lemery, May 2011