This is a second version, a newer version, of yesterday’s poem.

Monsters walk among us
wearing cardigan and denim.

They have a smile that lies
all the way through their eyes.

Behind upturned lips and teeth
lurks Grendel, soul devourer,
haunter and destroyer of men.

Snatching children away from childhood
and into the valley of the shadows,
they ravage silently, stealthily.

We may open the door to let them in
unknowingly risking beloved kin.

Monsters walk among us
and they look like you and me.