from it ain’t a choir
Darren C. Demaree
it ain’t a choir #52
it’s all asking it’s all word tricks it’s an army train that stops in the middle of the field and never heads to battle it’s the weapon with more echo than trigger stand stand stand here with the wind and go nowhere with me i can already hear them say we are against the wind we are not we are against the fear of the wind and they keep inventing bigger wind machines all we can do is believe that there is only one switch that isn’t human all we can do is use our hands while they strain to listen for the moment when we will finally stop talking we will never stop talking
it ain’t a choir #53
unwrap the crying mothers transfer their grief to the bark of trees let’s press flat the scene if they try to grizzle the riot before it begins we will show them what it’s in the arms of the crying fathers there will be a naked moment one they’ll choose to do it to us one more time or they will balk and be forced to fade away have a number in your mind how many bullets can you take in your thigh when they offer up they’re version of a middle path again
it ain’t a choir #54
i am not yet tired of being called radical for choosing to love the thrill of confronting speech as an act that as is either always in defiance of death or welcoming it as an ally most folks root for death a few have wished for mine have signed their names next to a picture of my limp tongue i am not yet tired of being called radical for choosing to love the thrill of confronting speech as an act that is either in defiance of death or welcoming it as an ally there are four levels of government that claim me that does not mean they are claiming everyone they do find time to mark each body with a paint stick they have put people on busses and in camps and if trains weren’t so full of milk and gasoline they’d be putting them on trains as well i am not yet tired of being called radical for choosing to love the thrill of confronting speech as an act that is either always in defiance of death or welcoming it as an ally how that makes me a counter-flow to the river of america i will never know
Darren C. Demaree is the author of fourteen poetry collections, most recently Unfinished Murder Ballads (October 2020, Backlash Press). He is Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. Darren is online at darrencdemaree.com.