Falling Off A Cliff In Slow Motion Poem by Patti Masterman

There was a little girl once lived in a little house
And she feared boogie men lived inside her closet
And underneath her bed and in her big tall chest
Of drawers with the two little cabinet doors on top
And that they came out in the hours after bedtime
And no adults understood it or believed what she said
She used to lie in her bed in the big dark holding her breath
Afraid they'd hear her breathing, and she covered her head up
With the blanket all except her nose and she was still as a mouse
For hours and hours..watching the moon sail along the windows edge
And after a while she was all grown up and then she knew about it finally
She knew the things that frightened her live inside of men only and also they
Lived inside of her and that there was nobody could keep them from coming out
At the right time, they would just come out and nothing could stop it from happening
There were no real boogie men or monsters and she began to wish that she was small
Again, afraid of nonsensical things hiding in her darkened room
Because they were so much less frightening
Than the reality that was the world.