Best Poems Written by Cassidy Bergeron

Monster

When I was growing up, 

I never had the opportunity to think that the monsters

were inside my closet. 

You see,

the monsters I had were between my parents. 

As they beat each other and screamed so loud no storm could compete. 

Broken tables and bleeding faces were so common 

I didn’t realize until later that it wasn’t the social norm.

After they split, I soon was banned from seeing my father

due to how his breath always smelled a little off, 

and he never seemed to be able to walk straight. 

And because he made me into a broken table, 

my body splintered on the living room floor,

because his temper couldn’t be controlled when he had fuel. 

So I lived with my mother, 

who surrounded herself with strange men, 

I never caught their names,

and we never really had a place to stay.

Her bruises left her face, and went to her forearm,

but I was too young to know what that meant.

Until she was imprisoned for possession with intent to sell,

then I knew.

But it was too late, because then I bounced from house to house,

paying the dues of my parents. 

My parents who made me 

believe that I should stay splintered and bruised. 

And soon I found that nobody wanted a broken thing. 

But now,

after many years since then,

when I am in the understanding that I deserve so much more than

what my parents showed me, 

and I found something to fulfill that, 

when my heart came to be so much of me, 

that the splinters from the tables from my childhood have healed,

I now have the opportunity to find that monsters in the closet are real.

And the monster is you.

Copyright © Cassidy Bergeron | Year Posted 2016