Poetry by Darren C. Demaree

POEM FOR KATIE, QUEEN OF OHIO #2

I will prove to you
the placement of the sky

is portable.
Each landscape

is a negotiation.
Ohio is a bad deal

that already loves you
& questions your father.

Be mutiny.
Goddamn, Katie

you are hope.
I hope you fight.

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POEM FOR KATIE, QUEEN OF OHIO #3

I know there are soft parts
of you. Keep them

if you want to. Abandon
them behind the Lucky’s

if you want to. Use my name
however you choose.

Any fire you start you have
to remember to shout out loud

the abstractions of what
hardened you.  Dance next to

the fire.  A queen never runs away
from that much color.

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Bio: Darren's poems have appeared, or are scheduled to appear in numerous magazines/journals, including Diode, Meridian, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review. He is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently ''Two Towns Over' (March 2018), which was selected as the winner of the Louise Bogan Award by Trio House Press. He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living and writing in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children. 

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