Lit-zine
JU
Darren C Demaree
Nude Male with Echo
#226
#227
#228
Darren C. Demaree is the author of "As We Refer to Our Bodies" (8th House, 2013), "Temporary Champions" (Main Street Rag, 2014), "The Pony Governor" (2015, After the Pause Press) and "Not For Art Nor Prayer" (8th House, 2015). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.
I must follow you
out from here,
because in every one
of my stories
I begin within
my own body.
I could be a saint
if I started, once,
above my skin.
Every good play
must begin
with a lobotomy
or a birdcage.
The rest of them
are posturing.
Thick-throated, my song
is a stumbling fighter, working
through my own residual fear
that all of the words are only
a pause in the tolling bell we built
quickly near the riverbank
in our own minds. I swallow
almost every thought, because
the system works too well.