Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week’s poet is high school student Lucy Wheaton.
Lucy loves playing the cello, conlanging, which is constructing language, and generally being creative. Here’s her poem “My Monster.”
My Monster
There’s a monster under my bed
He’s fluffy and purple and red
But when I say hi
He gets really shy
And I named my monster Fred.
I sing in my bed every night
And hope that someday I just might
Have sung enough poems
That Fred starts to know ‘ems
And maybe be cured of his fright.
Today I told Papa and Dad
That every night I simply had
The happiest times
Singing Fred nursery rhymes
But they told me that I had turned mad.
Last night I was eating my snack
Of crackers all nice in a stack
I dropped one and said,
“Come eat it, dear Fred!”
And thought I heard purring come back!
I quietly whisper, “Fred, why
Are you always so terribly shy?
We could be a team
If you had self esteem!”
But all that I heard was a sigh.
Decided to put by my feet
A pencil and note and a sheet
‘What is it you fear?
Just draw it right here!’
And maybe someday we can meet.
Incredibly to my delight
Fred answered my note from last night
He drew himself hiding
From fluorescent lighting
And wrote that the world is too bright!
At school there was show and share
I brought them a tuft of Fred’s hair
Ben said it was staged
Then I got enraged
And sent to the principal’s chair.
So Papa and Dad sat me down
And gave me a parental frown
“Oh please don’t resist,"
Fred doesn’t exist!
And you are just being a clown.”
That night I sat on my rug
My blankie was so very snug
I cried and I said,
“I’m sad, my dear Fred.”
But I wasn't expecting a hug.
Like a rocket, I jumped in the air
I couldn’t believe he was there!
I gave a loud shout
“Oh Fred! You came out!”
And I think I gave him a scare.
Now Fred and I always hang out
And I really don’t have any doubt
That someday he might
Exist in the light
But for now...I don’t know what else rhymes with “out.”
