by Shontay Luna
The Man
I saw a man who wasn’t there, but
he was. He was a thief, but what
he stole couldn’t be filled out on a
police report or placed in the classifieds,
in the hope it would be found.
He worked hard at being the perfect,
entertaining guest in my parent’s house.
So they wouldn’t suspect anything.
Knowing the more they drank, the sleepier
they’d get.
He came into my room when they finally passed
out. And did something the equivalent of ripping
my insides out. Tossing them on the pillow beside
me, so he could marvel at the empty
space left behind.
At four years old, I
didn’t know what
evil was.
But I learned
what it was
that night.
The Wolf & The Lambs
(for the former USAG Doctor)
The lambs abound on what should be their safe ground,
The place where they can focus and be secure in their being.
United by a dream and bound in youth,
they huddle together.
Tragically connected by the same dark matter.
The wolf sees them in random glances.
Sees their innocence as his mind is gleefully
immersed in scenarios that’d destroy it.
A ruin that could shatter souls eager to
master uneven bars and balance beams.
Lambs that tumble for hours on end and
in nighttime dreams of golden paths.
At first glance, the wolf doesn’t look like a wolf,
as his thin frame stood in the courtroom,
draped in neon and an unassuming expression.
But as the numerous deeds were tallied and
lamb after lamb came forward, he questioned
his mental stability to face them all. But it was
of no matter in the decades before and the
hundreds of faces prior. He, in his arrogance
and cruelty, thought he could silence them all.
That justice would never touch him,
much less restrain him.
But it did.
And the lambs stand together,
assured in the knowledge that
another will never hurt again.