There’s a silent monster

Lurking in the spaces we don’t fill

Threatening to take up house inside of us

And the worry that we won’t make it 

Like a flame slowly dying

We Pray

And stay away 

From each other

We lock our doors

Arm ourselves with weapons to arrest any possible

invasion 

But, isolation breeds loneliness deeper than you’ve

ever felt

“We’re united, even if we are apart”

Words we use to cradle ourselves

Beautiful—calming even, or so it seems

Words have a way 

To decorate

What is

The monster, the state, the neighbor, the self

What are facts, what is fiction?

The axes are unstable and disorienting

Chaos ensues

Life as we know it, now uprooted

And any sense of the ship steadying,

of the toxic, yet familiar trip home

Gone

The only comfort comes from knowing 

That nothing lasts forever:

Monsters eventually die and peace is found

If only for a while, again.

-SHANTAL