Closet door…
not quite
cellar door,
but just as much a portal
to a world
of grotesque
literary beauty.

Amid towering ruins,
decades untouched,
the creature waits,
its many limbs
quivering
with soullessness
and its eyes
invisible
to mine,

perhaps
nonexistent.

My heart pumping
with a universal,
illogical terror
and comical adrenaline,
I capture him.

A drinking vessel
becomes his traveling prison,
and finally,
the monster shrinks.

I bring him to his
new domain,
the larger one,
where he has
always belonged.

I set his prison
on its side
and wait…
but he does not escape.

Timidly,
I peak inside
to find him
cowering
quivering
at the back of the prison
which has apparently become a sanctuary.

I bring the cup upright,
tap it once
and spill the beast
unto the table,
amid the
fresh
cool
frigid air.

The creature takes several
unsure steps
then falls to his
eight
wispy
knees;
crumbles
and then,
within seconds,
stops.

Instantly reduced
from David
to a fallen Goliath
in every aspect
aside from size.

An ancient fresco
too beautiful
for our
lowly times.