A personal experience

Little girls should clean their plates
Taunts the mocking
mother voice

Eat!
You’ll make a plump
Thanksgiving prize
Twisted icy smile
Keeps the captive
sitting straight

Eat!
Or it’s into the crawl space
to feel the tickle of spider feet

Eat!
If you know what’s good for you
or rat teeth’ll bite your wiggly toes
Fear bubbles up in her throat

Relentless clock ticking
Creeping like
the cloaked
nightmare man

I’ll eat Mother
I’ll eat

I already know
It’s dark under there