The Boogeyman

May 2025, Rishikesh, India

Boogeymen and monsters, hide darkly out of sight
Some forms are so ugly, they haven’t seen the light

If I dared to stop struggling, Who would I be?
If I dared to really look, What would I see?

What lurks in the depths, beneath the shrouded veil?
A hapless sorry victim hides dark forbidden tales

Who is it that squirms, aching to be seen?
Beyond laments of pity, stirs something obscene

The violence decried as evil, lives in my soul as well
The one who seemed the villain, is trapped in their own sick hell

In every victim hides a brute, casting curses and evil eyes
A beast marooned by moral tides, with staunch contempt for civil lies.

So tell me, friend, on what ground can we stand?
When we seem to find ourselves in no-man’s land?

Where the innocent seem guilty, and the guilty innocent
Where we yearn to destroy, that which yearns to destroy

Where choosing a side is a fatal flight pride,
And digging deeper holes leaves you nowhere to hide

Where the darkness unbottled, seems far too vast 
One must find the courage, to swallow the past