Remembering Monsters

My mother made me bathe
Reminding me monsters
Hunt by scent.
She kept me thin saying
Only fat kids were eaten
Made me turn out the nite-light
When I was too old for light in darkness
Saying the could smell fear.

It was only after I married
And Chris showed his real face
Love of colours: red and black, I blue,
In the bedroom with the pain.
Was I recalled my mother's bruises
Wondered newly about my father, and why
She never told me that real monsters
Always smile, always gentle after,
And eat our fear and call it love.