november sixth time

I want to bottle the essence of monsters
and sprinkle it onto my soup at dinner.

I want to grind the fangs of vampires
into a delicate pulp that I can distribute
into all hand sanitizers.

When I was small, I used to pray for the worst
because I wanted to know that I had actually
felt it. That I was justified
in feeling the way that everyone feels.
It didn't occur to me how pointless
that was. That I would never know
if the prayer had been answered.