Even the Monster

by flammeusgladius

Even the Monster

 

 

Even the monster has to hide his face

When the right person steps into the room—

Or the wrong one.  She fills his raging space

And shows the levity of all his gloom

Without intending to.  Her friends assume

That she’s gone mad, that his unholy maw

Will open vast as craters to consume

Her soul, fresh sprung and all unseasoned, raw.

Instead, an iron and unwritten law

Crosses its muscled arms there at his core—

And those who cringed rise boldly to guffaw

At how his cloud of terror is no more.

She swiftly wins the unsought victory.

Into nonentity he has to flee.

 

 

–Tom Riley