a monster without scars showed up last night in my dream.
inside a shoe, without any hair, it struck me as
rather ambiguous.
did the monster have a gender?
did the monster care about clothes?

when i saw the green stamp inside its ear
(that's not a scar because it was put there)
it occurred to me the monster doesn't have to worry
about eating too many cookies
and the monster probably never bought floss
and i'm not sure the monster would understand me.

a monster's supposed to be so imperfect,
but i didn't see the kinds of flaws you and i have.
it had a number. it didn't need a name.
its poison was manufactured somewhere
and probably had an antidote.

it smelled like sulfur in the room
when i woke up there.
it didn't smell like ordinary monsters,
assuming i'd know how to sniff for them.
maybe i need a nightlight to beckon those.

Written in 2007.