I Used to Be Someone's Favorite Eclipse. by Daniel Crocker

before

the real darkness came

like a long, labored wink

Before the dragon ate the sun

I used to be someone's favorite

tragedy

Then the real darkness came

I see it in my cup of morning coffee

I see it in my pupil

I feel it burrowing holes

into me

I'm paranoid again

on the downside of mania

I hear it in her voice

when she asks if I

can just please

get out of bed

Before the real darkness came

I used to be someone's favorite

burning sun

brighter than first love

brighter than a single fish

scale alone on a dock

I won't let it worry me

It'll pass until the sky aligns just right

again, even then

my wife never got that beautiful

diamond ring she wanted, but

in consultation

my pills look like white moons.

Daniel Crocker's work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Hobart, Big Muddy, New World Writing, Stirring, Juked, The Chiron Review, The Mas Tequila Reviewand over 100 others. His books includeLike a Fish (full length) and The One Where I Ruin Your Childhood (e-chap with thousands of downloads) both from Sundress Publications. Green Bean Press published several of his books in the '90s and early 2000s. These include People Everyday and Other Poems, Long Live the 2 of Spades, the novel The Cornstalk Manand the short story collection Do Not Look Directly Into Me. He has also published several chapbooks through various presses. His newest full length collection of poetry, Shit House Rat, was published by Spartan Press in September of 2017. He was the first winner of the Gerald Locklin Prize in poetry. He is the editor ofThe Cape Rock (Southeast Missouri State University) and the co-editor of Trailer Park Quarterly. He's also the host of the podcast, Sanesplaining, about poetry, mental illness and nerd stuff. He is a bipolar, bisexual Gemini living the cliché.