There’s a Babysitter in the Room

There’s a babysitter

In the room

So I should not be scared

There are floor

To ceiling

Windows

And outside

It’s only woods

And the woods are dark

The trees are stripped

The door won’t lock correctly

But a babysitter’s in the room

So I should not be scared

The floorboards creak

The wind whips up

The wolves outside

Are howling

But I should not

Be scared

The movie on the television

Shows a vampire

Latching onto

A fair young maiden’s neck

The popcorn burns

In a bright blue bowl

Without any heat

To speak of

The babysitter’s boyfriend

Is locked in the basement

For calling her a name

He shouldn’t have said

And something’s down there with him

But after a few minutes

His screaming stops

And the babysitter tells me

To never let anyone

Call me a name

But I may not always

Have a basement

To lock them in

I don’t say that

I don’t say anything

I try to watch the movie

But the vampire

Looks like my babysitter

And the fair maiden

Looks like the girl at school

Who made fun of me

For gaining some weight

Over the summer

And every time

The vampire’s teeth

Go into the maiden’s neck

I think I hear her

Beg me to stop

The rewind and play

Rewind and play

But I don’t have

The remote

The babysitter has

The remote

The babysitter is in

Control

My phone keeps ringing

And it’s my parents

But they’ve been on

Their way home

For seventeen days

And the babysitter says

They’ll be back

When she’s ready

To walk back

To her house

She says it’s right

To leave somewhere

Only when

You want to leave

And since she isn’t ready to leave

The moon holds itself up

Against its will
And the wolves paw

At the windows

And ask for the sun

The babysitter unburns

The popcorn

With a casual glance

And I put on the paprika

That she brought
In her bag

Upstairs my room

Has been transformed

With the posters on the wall

Turning into portraits

Of my long-dead aunts

And my great-great-greats

The babysitter tells me

That after tonight

I’ll be able

To watch myself

Because I’m becoming

A woman

And a woman can
Look after herself

As long as somebody

Shows her how

A burglar tries

To break in

And as he does

The wolves pounce

And leave nothing

But the crowbar

He had planned to use

To make his way

The babysitter tells me

That all things

Must be invited

Or punished

For barging in

The movie rewinds

The thing in the basement

Chews so loudly
I can hear it upstairs

And I feel safer

Than I’ve felt

Since I can’t

Remember

When