Marc Darnell

Love In Quarantine

You hold a fever riddled in your veins,
reducing over time-- you must retire,
but malady in blood and bone remains.

It isn't terminal, by any means,
what makes you doubt your life and sets afire
a reservoir riddled in your veins,

a pettiness that bargains with and strains
that permanent contentment all desire,
maddeningly.  In blood and bone remains

of passions past, no one else can claim
your heart's mistakes, no drug's degree devour
Neronic songs, fiddled in your veins.

Be proud your heart seismically sustained
the aftershocks-- aches that one requires
to live again.  Your blood and bone remain

to heal the scars of solipsistic pains,
cuts that mark one battle with despair,
and how you fought a fever in your veins,
no malady-- your blood and bone remain.

Tears From A Stone

I can't love, but I can cry–
desire no lips, no body's touch.
I've never lived, but I can die

so easily with just a sigh
or morbid whim, it won't take much.
I can't love, but I can cry

a sea, yet my hard soul’s a lie–
it's shrunken, I am just a wretch
who's never lived, but I can die

by pill or razor, watch me fly
and hit the ground, a broken finch.
I can't love, but I can cry

out inner aches, still I deny
that I can love-- my heart’s no match,
see I've not lived, but I can die.

My body wanes, my lips go dry
as lovers kiss, their passion rich.
I can't love, but I can cry.
I've never lived, but I can die.

Marc Darnell is an online tutor and lead custodian in Omaha NE, and has also been a phlebotomist, hotel supervisor, busboy, editorial assistant, and farmhand.  He received his MFA from the University of Iowa, and has published poems in The Lyric, Rue Scribe, Verse, Skidrow Penthouse, Shot Glass Journal, The HyperTexts, Candelabrum, The Road Not Taken, Aries, Ship of Fools, Open Minds Quarterly, The Fib Review, Verse-Virtual, Blue Unicorn, Ragazine, The Literary Nest, The Pangolin Review, and elsewhere. His newest book is The Sower from Cyberwit Press.