So children's books were terrifying...

and maybe that's why I'm this quivering mass of anxiety now

churned from years of reading goosebumps, animorphs,

and the quest of a lightning-scarred boy against incompetent adults

trapped in a dangerous school with real fucking monsters...

how about the true fairy tales? where birds plucked out the eyes

of Cinderella's evil step sisters, after one cut off her heel, and the other her big toe?

or how the little mermaid never married her true love

and withered away into seafoam

and if I needed a break, I couldn't escape from tv

no, the stories on the screen were far worse

the horror of witches sucking the lives out of children

or magical girls fighting aliens trying the same ol' thing

I watched my heroes die on tv...

a little dog just trying to protect his family, trapped in the middle of nowhere

and video games toyed with me more than them

running through dark and twisted corridors shooting at swarming parasites

wading through fog and radio static, hacking zombies,

...the worst were the unexpected scares- characters staring back at the screen

protesting their idle prison, easter egg enemies, or just a dead end

I couldn't beat

I don't know if current children's media still carries the torch

of whatever we went through, but maybe it's for the better to dim that light

and keep some monsters in the dark

~ERL Poetry - Elisse Lorenc