All The Monsters

I wake up, but not awake.
I can’t unsee what I see.
I’m followed into consciousness.
Stalked and hunted by monstrous shadows.
With every effort, I walk to rooms and do what I need to.
I return to my place on the shelf.
I dart my eyes, paranoid. My teeth chatter and click together.
I can smell the raw sewage from the plant in the next city.
I can hear the fog horns on the Ohio river, fifty yards away.
The house shakes as a train breaks in the train yard across from my home. I hear the engine screaming to a halt. The electric Ozone and diesel smell mixed with thousands of tons of coal. The locomotives thrive…
I hear the small whispers of the shadows…
I can’t quite make out what they are saying…
All the sounds, all the silence, all the monsters.
All of me…

T.L Stafford
10/11/2018