Darren C. Demaree



THE ROUTINE: THE ELLIPTICAL

The town is wild
& I am not. I am sweating
in the same place

for an hour every day
while I watch Houseboat
or Harry Potter

or All the Real Girls
if I’m in a really bad mood.
What kind of hour

is this really? I don’t know.
I did it the first day
after my second relapse

& I’ve done it every day
since. Apparently exhaustion
is the key to my sobriety.



THE ROUTINE: SECOND BREAKFAST

I eat all the time.
It’s one of the best things
about being me.



THE ROUTINE: A SHOWER

I know if I try to count every drop
of water my madness has been honed
for the day. I will be a splinter

of crazy, a sharp narrowing
of madness that can be wielded
like a comet with a mountain picked out

to level. There is always a brink.
I live in that first cure of acceptance
that there will always be a brink.




Darren C. Demaree is the author of seven poetry collections, most recently A Fire Without Light (2017, Nixes Mate Books). His eighth collection, Two Towns Over, was selected as the winner of the Louise Bogan Award by Trio House Press, and is scheduled to be released in March of 2018. He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry.
 
 
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