There is a monster in my bedroom
locked there every morning until
every evening when I let him free.

He is all the things I did not do
and every ‘I forgot’ and ‘maybe tomorrow’
and ‘I’ll find time this Saturday’
and he is a monster.

Thank goodness I have made
to lock him up each day, or
surely he’d have killed me.
He’d kill us all, I’m sure.

But he has not breached
my sturdy bedroom lock,
nor has he made to open
one of the many windows
(and just as well, for
ground-floor is not so
great a leap).

He is a monster, and he is
locked in my bedroom every
morning until every evening
when I let him free.