There’s a monster under my bed

A monster made of socks

Of hair ties

Of dust

And paper

So much paper

Where did I ever get so much paper?

Crumpled sketches

Scrap Paper

Sticky notes

Assignments and quizzes with

Good grades

Fine grades

Try-not-to-think-about grades

And notes from every high school year

And books

So many books

Some are tattered

Some are borrowed—

By now, just call them stolen

Some are new and never read

Some are favorites I wanted

Within reach

Only to fall

Into monster jaws

There’s a monster under my bed

Though you never would have guessed

I’ve tidied what is peeking out

It feels like a lie

There’s a monster under my bed

But the rest of the room is tidy

As tidy as it can be with mess clawing

Just behind it

There’s a monster under my bed

A monster made of shame

Chaos behind a facade

Perfectionism’s pitfalls