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?