Joseph DeMarco Poems

There used to be a great tower alone on the sea, although this tower was originally the prison of Daedalus and Icarus. After their escape and Icarus’ fall, it became the cell of a centaur named Cheiron. It is from this tower that this myth bursts forth. How Cheiron, the centaur, became imprisoned there, well, I’ll explain as the story unfurls. In all the Greek Isles, there was perhaps no more singularly pitiful creature than Delphi Papadakis. Delphi should have been extremely unique, in that he was a species many thought to be fictional and mythological, and although he was in truth proud of being a species that was so rare on God’s green Earth that people were astonished at its sight, Delphi had a couple of severe problems.1) He was an orphan, which puts one at a disadvantage to begin with, but when you factor in 2) that he had been born with a slight disfigurement, well, things look even more abysmal. Delphi was a centaur, but he was not your typical centaur. Instead of having a head, arms and chest of a man but the legs and lower half of a horse, he was born the opposite. He had a horse’s head, arms and chest but a man’s lower half and legs. It was not a pretty sight; he could barely stand up, and when he walked he had to hobble. When Delphi went for a hobble, other centaurs would turn away and avert their eyes. A mother centaur would often cover the eyes of her child centaur so that he or she would not stare at Delphi’s disfigurement. Delphi felt a freak of nature, and what was worse, none of the female centaurs would date him or mate with him due to his disfigurement.

It seemed Delphi was destined to live a life of solitude and loneliness, for no female centaur would speak with him, let alone want to procreate. When he went out for hobbles, he was ridiculed and picked on. He got called chicken legs and ladies thighs as insults. Pholus, a giant centaur who was built like a Clydesdale, was the worst of his antagonists, for sometimes he even got physical. So Delphi, for the most part, kept to himself. I might as well be one of those lowly dog-centaurs, he thought.
...

How I Wonder What You Are?
July 5th 1982

The moonlight trickled through the top of the window, little Leonid lay awake in bed long after all the lights in the house had been shut off. This always seemed to happen, well not always, it seemed to happen in phases. How often? Was it monthly? He didn't know he hadn't been keeping track. He just didn't need as much sleep as the average person. While the average person could get by with 6-8 hours, Leonid just needed 4-5. Some nights, if he had a really refreshing dream, he could go 2-3. He always knew he was different, not normal. Last year, he and his parents had gone on vacation to Las Vegas. He was not allowed to gamble as he was too young, but he was allowed to walk the casino floor. The place just felt wrong. It was hard to say what was wrong about it, the place just felt horrible. The weirdest part was no one else could feel what he felt. The badness, the way the lighting seem to turn everybody into a robot. They just walked around like machines shoving quarters into slots, exuding this green greed that seemed to emanate from the top of their head. He hugged his bankey tightly and put his thumb in his mouth. His bankey was a light blue blanket. Plus it had been washed so many times, it was down to a very faded aqua blue. He petted the faded aqua blue blanket, massaging it, it seemed to calm him, the softness, the color. From down the hall, he could hear his father snoring, as he stared up at the ceiling.
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The Unscheduled Meeting
January 8th 2012

Leo (who was no longer little Leonid) normally didn't eat breakfast. He unusually also didn't eat lunch, he'd have one big meal at the end of the day and that was it. Leo was an adult. But his eating habits reminded him more of a snake than a human. Well, he was sort of an adult, he had long hair and wore a blue cap that became aqua at the edges. It had been knitted, and given to him as a gift from some mysterious Hawaiian lady. To be clear, he would never have described the cap as indigo, but for some reason he believed it held some magical power. His surf shorts had several holes in them and were faded off white.
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You should know how this is:
Fate cannot fight
This unconquerable emotion,
This bliss.
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The Lizard King has taken up refuge in my
Subconscious
The spell has been cast
I defecate on sacred ground
...

The scene is all too familiar
(Except for the purple sky) ,
Has this happened before?
Deja vu on the edge of a waking dream?
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“Those who don't know their history
Are condemned to repeat themselves.”
For we are reincarnation's red-headed step child
Beaten by the wicked path,
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The three hundred shall perish again,
As history repeats itself.
Although this time, it may only be 297.
My mother was possessed by the God, Apollo,
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