Beast

curled within me sleeps a beast
with sharp claws and poisoned teeth
i always hide the tracks it leaves
but wonder, what if i could set it free?

what if it burst right from my skin—
this cage of flesh and blood and bone
where smiles make their only home—
and wreaked havoc on what it beheld?

maybe then it'd vacate a space in me,
once deadly for all that ventured in
where now darkness would reign in comfort
and my stars could slowly come to life