He’s ugly,
stand behind me child. You’re safe now but — Look away.
But,
I want to see him.
He is hideous. He has horns, and a forked tail, and holes where his eyes should be.
Beauty is on the inside, I say to the back of her front.
No. Not this time. His heart is ugly, his words hurtful, and his language vulgar.
There must be good in him.
Everyone has some good.
Not him. Now hush.
But I can’t see.
Or talk.
Please.
I’ll describe it to you.
Lift me up.
You said, they are all monsters.
He is the worst because he looks like the monster they all are.
Lift me up, please
So I can see the revolution.
Ssshhhh.
Christine A. Brooks is a graduate of Western New England University with her B.A. in Literature, and is currently attending Bay Path University for her M.F.A. in Creative Non Fiction. Most recently a series of poems, The Ugly Five, are in the summer issue of Door Is A Jar Magazine and her poem, The Writer, is in the June, 2018 issue of The Cabinet of Heed Literary Magazine. Three poems, Puff, Sister and Grapes are in the 5th issue of The Mystic Blue Review. Her vignette, Finding God, will be in the December issue of Riggwelter Press, and her series of vignettes, Small Packages, was named a semifinalist at Gazing Grain Press in August 2018. Her poem, The Monarch, will be published in October, 2018 and The Man will be published in November, 2018 in the Amethyst Review.