I didn’t
expect an explosion,
but
there was an explosion.
Somebody
had left
a
partially torn-down meth setup
in the
kitchen of the house,
so that
fucker went up
like we
had dropped a bomb on it.
We
couldn’t disappear after that.
We were
on our asses after that.
Everybody
with a camera phone
finished
taking our pictures while
we
waited for the police.
We stank
from the effort. I wanted
to smell
like a fire, but I didn’t.
I
smelled like a long, beautiful night
that
ended with an ending
that
could never wash off. I fidgeted
a little
in the first rising dust
of the
day. I watched the flames
&
thought of the horses
from the
creek. They would have
been so
proud of us right now.
I
thought of my friend’s dead wife.
I fell
asleep on that road
& I
dreamed of no terror
& I
dreamed up until they cuffed me
&
reminded me of my many rights.
Darren C. Demaree: I am the author of six poetry collections, most recently Many Full
Hands Applauding Inelegantly (2016, 8th House Publishing). My seventh 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. I am the
Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry.
I am
currently living and writing in Columbus, Ohio with my wife and children.