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[when the blisters come]

i told my children when the blisters come then you’ll finally have the first motion learned the second motion will pop and bleed your hands the third motion will strip to remove your earlier efforts i don’t know what will be piling up beside your feet but everything every job every passion is an effort game never forget this your body should fail completely when the time comes that you must slow down at all

Hand vector image created by Freepik

Darren C. Demaree

Darren C. Demaree is the author of fifteen poetry collections, most recently “Burning It Down”, (December 2020, 8th House Publishing).  He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louis Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal.  He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry.  He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.