THE ROUTINE: THIRD DOWN THE STAIRS

by Darren C. Demaree

The girl had a nightmare.
She knows
we’re trying to buy a new house
& she is fiercely loyal to this house

& that anxiety is ripping her up a bit
& she is dreaming her first mad dreams,
she is hearing wolves in her sleep,

she is barefoot in the woods in her sleep
& nobody will let her hold an axe
in her dreams.
I wonder if the axe

is for the wolves, or if she’s looking
for that new house to destroy before we
can find it tucked back who knows where.