Frozen Monster Poem

Every monster is a child.
Every time the monster gets
Away with something, the child

Thinks, oh! Let’s try that again.
Let’s get some more! Every time.
Other monsters tend to think,

Well, then, the trick is never
To let monsters get away
With anything. They’re thinking

Like monsters, then, not children.
There’s no controlling monsters
By always denying them.

That’s a monstrous thing to do.
The only way to not be
A monster is to become

A shadow among monsters.
The way in which children aren’t
Monsters as much as monsters

Are children is that, for years,
Children intuitively
Understand you have to feed

The monster, to meet its needs,
To give it a little room.
The child thinks, let the monster

Get away with something, see
What happens. The child’s learning.
Monsters never learn, never

Realize they’re just children
Frozen being children
The way that poems get frozen.