The monsters that come at night don’t
breathe fire, have two heads or long claws.
The monsters that come at night don’t
come bloody and half-dead and calling your name.
They come looking like regular boys
going through your drawers and pockets saying
You better not tell Counselor else I’ll beat you down.
The monsters that come at night snatch
the covers off your bed, take your
pillow and in the morning
steal your bacon when the cook’s back is turned
call themselves The Throwaway Boys, say
You one of us now.
When the relatives stop coming
When you don’t know where your sister is anymore
When every sign around you says
Group Home Rules: Don’t
do this and don’t do that
until it sinks in one rainy Saturday afternoon
while you’re sitting at the Group Home window
reading a beat-up Group Home book,
wearing a Group Home hand-me-down shirt
hearing all the Group Home loudness, that
you are a Throwaway Boy.
And the news just sits in your stomach
hard and heavy as Group Home food.
Jacqueline Woodson, “Group Home Before Miss Edna’s House” from Locomotion. Copyright © 2003 by Jacqueline Woodson. Used by permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Source: Locomotion (Puffin Books, 2003)
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