Toys

The teddy bears and dolls lie scattered about the room.
Children glance at them, play with them, and then toss them aside.
They noshalantly meander past the toys,
all the time ignoring them,
For the toys are no threat to the children.
But in the young hours of the night,
when into their beds the children crawl,
the toys that have lain dorment all day
become the only concern to the paranoid child.
The teddy bear that once lie helpless, buried beneath a mound of clothes,
is not a fiery-eyed demon waiting to attack.
The dolls that were thrown about the room
now cling to each other to become a strange man's shadow on the wall.
The very same children who had failed to acknowledge the mere existence of the toys,
now find themselves paralyzed by the fear of what the toys really are,
now that the lights are out.

--Daryl Molen


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