Monster

Monster

You are not a monster

Not because you have fangs or horns

Not because you have scaly green skin.

You are not a monster because they said to you,

Because they told you…

You are not a monster unless you believe it.

You are a monster, child, because you do.

So you play the games that monsters play

Claw and scratch and scream

You are not a monster for playing thus

But those you play with,

They prove to your young heart

That kindness is for humans.

And you may not be a monster,

But you have never been a human.

Being "not human"

Makes you a monster again.

And you are not a monster for hurting them

They hurt you first, after all…

You are not a monster for killing them either

You are too young.

You do not know.

You are not a monster because they whisper it.

You are a monster because you can’t help but hear it.

You grow up and play monster until your cage breaks,

Spilling you out into an unsuspecting world.

A world filled with monsters

But they are not monsters like you

So you run.

You run so far away that you lose that monster

That monster playing monster games

With those people,

Humans you didn’t yet know were alive

If they weren’t alive,

How else did they die?

You ran right into the ice and snow

Right to the door of a new, exciting sort of monster

He had cold eyes and a room for you.

He didn’t look at you like those people did.

You didn’t dare tell him you were a monster…

Until the day you did.

And that monster, that monstrous man,

He told you something terrible

He told you you were human.

Just like him.

And so you were.

Even after he left you

Years and years gone past.

You thought of him when you doubted your humanity

And being a monster faded so far back under your hat,

That you were never a monster at all.

You are not a monster because you believed him.

You are a monster because you loved him.

Even when he chose to leave you again

Even when he died.

You still loved him

Because you were not a monster

Neither was he.

Because monsters cannot love.