"When I was a kid
I had a friend.
He scared me, often,
And I never knew how much
I loved him.
How much
I'd miss him.
His name was
The Boogey Man.
He was the monster under
My bed.
He smiled at me, but
I thought it was
A sneer.
He frightened me and often
I dove for
Safety
Under my covers.
And then I
Grew up.
Sadly.
The Boogey Man
Cried,
The day that I looked
Him straight in the eye
Without
A
Flinch.
You see, even
Though it hurt him
When I was afraid,
At least it was
Some form of
Acknowledgement
For the lonely soul.
But now I was
Gone.
The little girl
That hugged stuffed
Animals,
Couldn't sleep without them,
Was
Gone.
And The Boogey Man,
The wise
Boogey Man,
Knew
It was
A
Very
Bad
Thing.
The Boogey Man knew
That if she grew up
This
Fast
That she would not
Be ready
For his cousins,
Life
And
Hell.
They were cruel
And showed no mercy
To anyone
Young
Old
Innocent.
But The Boogey Man,
The kind
Boogey Man
Knew
That even though
She had been afraid
Of him
She probably wasn't now.
So
He visited.
Sometimes every night
Sometimes once
A month.
But always
When she
Needed
Him.
When she was sad
He would stand
By her bed
When she was
Worried
Or
Stressed
He would sit
Quietly on the floor
Or play
Peek-a-boo
From under the bed (his old haunt during her innocence)
She couldn't always
See him
But she knew
That he was
There.
And the knowing...
It was enough.
It was enough
That someone,
Even an
Invisible
Childhood Terror
Cared enough
To
Try
To take her
Back
To childhood
Even if for a day."