Gas Station Candy Bars & Other Monsters

Isn’t it awful?

To be in love.

Absolutely terrifying-

That warmed belly; tightened-chest kind of feeling.

Like holding your burning palms up against an evening fire; in the middle of winter.

skin - frozen - numb.

As a child, I used to pull the bed covers up over my head before I slept.

We all knew to be afraid of monsters.

But love ….

Love was a blonde princess in a pretty pink dress, signing from atop a tower.

Love was mother's kiss against a small bruised knee.

No one taught me to be afraid of love until I was too old for beneath-the-bed monsters.

No.

I wasn’t told those stories,

The ones about the boys who stole hearts just for the rush-

Like the unsuspecting candy bar at a gas station cash register; the one a boy slips into his back pocket-

Stolen

And unimportant.

And then we get a little older, boys grow into men and we stop letting ourselves be little unimportant things for stealing.

The years go by and the dark rooms we used to fear being left alone in seem to now give us peace of mind.

You learn not to be afraid of the dark, that there or no monsters under the bed, that there never were.

But every now and then,

When the air in the night is just right…

Your toes inch away from the edge of the bed,

The covers inch up over your head-

And you’re still afraid of those tired old monsters you know don’t live under the bed.