Andrew Demcak

Perfectionist at the Beach

fifteen degrees higher than your elbow
the sun was a Roman coin
as marrow
rinsed from your flesh
its bronze announcing
a high tide
tracing the grayness of your
thigh

alchemical
a fluency
of vein

your suicide
that umbrella
whose plume wouldn't shade a happier shore

an undoubtable need
persistently
penciled by your burden
poetic
a longing for the wordless in your words


God and the 3rd Step

at first
He was an irrelevant word

then
an unflawed blackberry arriving
in the sun

rosettes of icing along
the valium skyline

the murdered
and living brightness

moon
like a mother
drawn before me

the lesson of the last
vodka
on a high rooftop
a city
where this ache wouldn't end

an airport where
clouds and planes came

some back-lit restaurant

the surprise witness
at my own trial

this distance closing
thin as a needle




Andrew Demcak is an award-winning poet who has been widely published and anthologized 
both in print and on-line. He has an M. F. A. in English/Creative Writing from St. Mary's College 
in Moraga, CA , where he studied with Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Michael Palmer, Carol Snow, Frank Bidart, 
Gary Snyder, Charles Wright, and Sharon Olds. Andrew is also a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, 
where he studied with Galway Kinnell, Richard Howard, and Lucille Clifton. His poems, including Young Man With iPod
 (Poetry Midwest, #13), are taught at Ohio State University as part of both its English 110.02 class, 
"The Genius and the Madman," and in its "American Poetry Since 1945" class. Viva Wallace Stevens! 
Visit Andrew at: http://www.andrewdemcak.com.