Hello, Monsters

by Nicole Romero

There was a time when my daughter was very scared of monsters. These were nights of 3 am room visits and long conversations in the dark; nights when the blinking light on the smoke detector threatened to eat her in her sleep.

“Face your monsters,” I’d say. “Monsters chase us when we run. But, when you turn to face them, they either run away or they play with you.”

I wrote this poem as a way to finally take my own advice and face down my fears.  No more lost years. No more hiding.  I needed to turn and face my own monsters.

“Fear is a lion, that only backs down when we stop acting like prey and stand our ground.”

Nicole Romero is a poet, speaker and joy ninja… a girl learning to punch fear in the face one word at a time. Writing at www.1000strands.com.