sleeping cramped

in the corner attic

dust is everywhere

dust

spiders

all the worst things

but worst of all worst

clutter unimaginable

it's not just the space

it's not the spaces in-between

spaces where there isn't any

it's the piled high paper

that not one person

will let me consider

recycling

shredding

or otherwise disposing thereof

so my small cot is surrounded

the deal is this:

spend the night among it

all the cumbersome details

and their trappings

and all will be forgotten

you see,I was bold one day

normally I can't even

touch the attic door

but something had to be done

and I was alone

the window was so inviting

and I wondered

what would it look like

to see just one pile

fluttering down in the wind

like the moths they are

tonight

I sleep by that pile

for I am not the only one

with a problem

"No, Mommy, I don't want to go in there!" The girl wails. She has bright green eyes and curly brown hair. Her lips are curled, and she crosses her arms. "I won't go."

The mother takes her daughter's hand. "It's only for a little while, love. It'll be over before you know it."

The girl shudders, and pulls away from her mom. "But they're gonna give me a shot."

The mother bites her lip. "Yes, they are. But--honey-"

"I WON'T GO!" The girl's eyes well up with tears, and soon they stream down her cheeks.

The mother sighs. "Darling, it's for your health. You don't want to get sick, do you?"

The girl lets out a small whimper. "You can't make me go, Mommy."

The mother is about to respond when a nurse, a smile plastered on her face, comes into the waiting room. "Is she ready?" The nurse asks.

"NO! NO! NO!" The girl's face is red from screaming and crying. She clutches her teddy bear. "You can't make me!"

The nurse still his her smile, but she really hates having to put up with this. "Now, sweetheart, I-"

"You can't make me get a shot, you can't make me!" The girl's eyes are wide with fear. She buries her face in her teddy bear and lets out a sob.

The nurse clasps her hands together, and tilts her head. "Oh, it'll be over before you know it. You won't feel a thing!"

The girl brings her teddy bear down from over her eyes, and peers up at the nurse. "I don't wanna get a shot," she says, her voice hot with tears.

The mother lifts her daughter up, and heaves her onto her hip, although she's been telling her daughter that she's been too old for being carried for a while now. The mother kisses the girl's cheek. "Shh, it'll be alright."

The girl starts sucking on her teddy bear's ears. "Really, Mommy? Really?"

Another kiss from the mother. "Really, honey."

The three of them walk into bright room full of stuffed animals, cardboard books, and cartoony posters.

All is going well, until the doctor comes in, and brings out the shot.

The girl lets out a scream. "NO, NO, NO! NO!"

The mother looks flustered. "Shh, honey, shh."

The girl is shaking. "NO! You can't make me, you really can't!"

The doctor, a man with warm brown eyes and shocking red hair, smiles. "It won't hurt, I promise."

The girl shakes her head vigorously. "No!"

The mother lets out a long, soft sigh. "Sweetheart, just hold out your arm."

The girl lets out another scream. "NO, NO!"

The adults try to persuade her.

"You won't even feel it."

"It'll be fine."

"It will help you."

"I promise that it will be okay."

"Just hold out your arm."

The girl gazes at her mother and the doctor, her green eyes wet with tears. She wipes them away, and holds out her arm. Her heart is racing and she is taking in short, fearful gasps of breath.

The doctor wipes a spot on her arm, and plunges the needle in.

The girl lets out a terrified scream, although it doesn't hurt that much, not really.

The doctor takes the needle out, and disposes it. He puts an Ariel Band-Aid on her arm, where she had gotten the shot. "See? It wasn't that bad," he says calmly.

The girl hesitates. Her heart is still racing, although it is slowing a bit. She glances at the doctor, and at her mother. "It wasn't so bad," she admits.

Her mother beams. "I'm so proud of you, honey."

And the girl is proud of herself, too. After she gets her lollipop and is out the door, she says, "Mommy, I have a question."

"What is it, honey?"

"Can I get a shot again?" She asks, very seriously. "I really like lollipops, Mommy."

The mother laughs, but the girl just looks confused. "We'll come back soon enough," she says, and ruffles her daughter's hair.

"Okay!" The girl says cheerfully, and dashes off, cherry lollipop in mouth, teddy bear under arm.

You hid the truth of how ill you are

So “You wouldn’t think I was defective”

So I wouldn’t lose interest in us, as one

Didn’t you ever think, that’s why I love you

You disappear to where, for weeks on end?

I don’t know if you are preparing me for worst

Or accepting the fact you will soon be dead

I tell you how much courage you have, to face this down

You tell me that you are scared, and can no longer go on

I tell you to be brave, I am with you…you will survive

I was right, the light lives on inside you and gives you strength

You have overcome before, and you will, you must, this time again

I say a prayer each night, that you will get a little better each day

So I may love, live, and laugh with you, in the sunlight of my care

Each and every night

The unseen evil he feared

He chased it everywhere

What he could not see

He could not fight

But wasn't it always there?

Yet, he loved the stars

And the moon when it was new

But in his head, so many wars

That deprived him of her views

No more fear- he said

The night my enemy is not

Near the window he placed his head

Althogh afraid, afraid, a lot.

But then, he stopped

At moonlight, feeling so dim

The unease mood, he dropped Tranquility found its way to him.

It shall never go,

For that, he was well aware

But he learned to value the night

And only see what is there.

"Sit down," says the nurse. Her hair is pulled back in an unraveling bun and her eyes are frowning as she looks at the trembling five year old huddled at the door. "I don't have time for this"she mutters under her breath. The little girl shakes her head plaintively.

"I don't want to,"she wraps her arms around herself. Her eyes widen as she spots the long, glistening needle on the syringe the impatient nurse withdraws from a drawer. "Why do I have to?"

"You'll be healthy if you let me do what you came here for me to do,"the nurse says with a touch of irritation. She raises the needle; the girl cringes. But it's only to fill the syringe with translucent medicine. The girl relaxes slightly, but watches the nurse take out a sanitary wipe warily.

"Sit down," the nurse repeats herself, now with more force in her tone. The child reluctantly obliges and settles on the chair next to the desk. The nurse opens the sanitary wipe and rubs her client's shoulder with it. After disposing it, she picks up the syringe.

"It's going to hurt, isn't it?"the little girl begins to cry. Something in the nurse's eyes softens as she looks at quietly sniffing child.

"How about I give you the pink Band-Aid with Aurora on it?"she offers gently. "Aurora, the Disney princess?"She takes it out from a box on the shelf above her desk. The girl stops crying and looks suspiciously at it.

"For me?"the girl asks. The nurse nods in silent confirmation. Satisfied, the child obligingly turns so that her shoulder faces the desk and closes her eyes, bracing herself for the pain. The nurse inserts the needle. The girl shifts slightly at the touch of cold metal. A moment later, a prick, and then it's over. A middle aged woman walks in the office.

"Mama!" the girl slips off the chair and runs to her mother. "Look at this!" Proudly, she shows off her bedazzled Band-Aid. Her mother pats her daughter fondly.

"Good job, Madeline!"

Spiders spiders!

So many spiders!

I screamed and I kicked but they didn't listen,

The evil people dragged me out of my clean spider-less home.

They took me to a white room,

It was clean no spiders so I started to calm down but then I saw it in the middle of the room, a big box of SPIDERS!!

I screamed and I kicked some more, no use so I started pleading and crying, They still didn't listen.

Why did they have to do this to me? I wasn't doing anything wrong, was I?

They pushed me into the box and as I tried to scramble out, they put a lid on the box, I was trapped with spiders!

I screamed for what felt like a week, then I couldn't scream any more so I went silent.

I started hearing the spiders talk the kept saying they didn't want to hurt me that the wanted to be my friend. So I finally started believing they were my friends. The people finally let me out. And the spiders fallowed me home, there my friends now I never go anywhere without them. But they whisper like crazy and it's hard not to listen to what there telling me to do.