While everyone slept
I set up all of the mirrors
to face against the walls
& I couldn’t be sadder
that nobody realized
& nobody thought
that this was strange.
Come to think of it,
when was the last time
I saw what I look like?
I have pictures of myself.
I was a pretty man.
—
Darren C. Demaree’s poems have appeared, or are scheduled to appear in numerous magazines/journals, including the South Dakota Review, Meridian, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review. He is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly (2016, 8th House Publishing) and is the managing editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He currently lives and writes in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.
reading that man from here I feel a strong urge to hug him biggly. and yet if I were in that place looking at the mirrors facing the walls and perhaps seeing him I may not know what to do. such deep sadness for all of those people who don’t know what to do and for all of the ‘hims’. thank you for the vision Darren C. Demaree.