a childhood problem

listening at keyholes is a childhood problem

is how you discover the monster beneath your bed is

inside the walls

the walls of your childhood home are full of bees full

of cotton soft spider eggs and

the pock marks on your legs are angry like burns

to smoke out the house you burned it

to the studs the spiders escaped hidden

inside the rosebud flesh of your eardrums

you were born with banana skin your father says you

bruise too easily beneath the surface your mother

cannot speak with her lips buttoned shut