The CW's "Supernatural" is my all-time favorite TV show, and the unconditional relationship between brothers Sam and Dean is the most beautiful aspect of it. This spring, I took a creative writing course, and this poem was the result of one of my assignments, and I will proudly say that it is my favorite work I have written.
Shelter
“I’m gonna take care of you. I’ve got you. That’s my job, right? Watch out for my pain-in-the-ass little brother?”
Scarlet flames engulfed the nursery
On that snowy night
And Mama burned up
So Daddy told you
Son, take your baby brother and run
As he tried to save a corpse
Unblemished paper hands
Snatched me from my crib
And assembled a new cradle
You left your innocence in that old cot
Tucked in rubble blankets
And kissed goodnight
By the prowling lips
Of midnight smoke
Remember that Christmas
When Dad got drunk
And didn’t come home?
Our naked tree
Staggered bare on the
Disappointment stained
Cheap motel carpet
I had my first nightmare where
The monster in the closet came to attack
I knelt on the side of the bed
And asked a God you didn’t believe in
Hadn’t I been a good boy?
You heard my tears fall
And slid out the window
A shadow in the night
When I awoke a pile of
Perfectly wrapped presents
Clothed our pathetic tree
A stranger’s name clumsily
Scratched out and replaced by my own
Merry Christmas
You croaked, opening
Your bulging arms
The only place I could ever call
Home
It’s December again
I’m all grown up and you’re gone
Six feet under bitter ground
Newly rotting flesh encased
By the confines of my nightmares
And held hostage
By the flaming demons of our past
Go on
You whispered
As you relinquished your soul
To my Grim Reaper
Bruised steel hands
Fought that thief’s knife
Away from our backs
All in vain
Blade plunged into muscle
And by the resonant laughter
Of cruel fate
My cradle cracked
Tell me, brother
Where do I lay
When my shelter
falls?
