S P Oldham, Author

Give me your beasts of burden and woe

Give me your reasons for making me go

Laugh at my weaknesses, mock all my chores

I’ll listen later, while you’re keeping scores

Give me your mockery, make it a chain

To hang round my neck and then call me vain

Act like it’s you whose been turned around

Keep kicking and lying while I’m on the ground

The bruises are badges, the scars are all real

But they are all numb, and who cares how I feel

So give me your monsters, give me your demons

Thrown down your ghouls, your spirits and phantoms

Shrug them off your shoulders, put them on mine

Float away empty, leave them behind

Let them all drown me under their weight

Don’t turn around, it’s already too late

I want to embrace them. I want them in sight

At least I know where they go at night

Beneath a mound of flesh, blood and bone

I watch you leave, but you’re not alone

You throw back your head, you laugh at your win

But I see a mottled hand rest on your skin

Even before you are out of view

A monster is settling on top of you

A tail around your neck,  a hand on your arm

Crooning soft and low, swearing no harm

Now a beast with horns, now a black dog

Now you’re almost lost in a billow of fog

 I understand at last, to the depths of my bones

You’re dealing with monsters and beasts of your own

S P Oldham