Gross Stress Reaction

You were a dank shadow,
our very own bogeyman
spoken about in whispers 
 
raging in your kitchen,
snatching air from a tank,
voice like a pneumatic rasp.
 
Your rattles of laughter
provoked my giggles,
egged on disobedience
 
and their disapproving looks.
Secrets had erased your life,
the kind I must never be told
 
for with them comes shame.
It was decades later
when I learned the truth.
 
Your breed of monster
will never be welcome.
Only heroes return from war.

First published by Bolton School of the Arts 2018