Poetry by Darren C. Demaree

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[dark red]
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i told my daughter dark red is a heart that cannot be crushed by the changing
times or the choking spirit of our america and that dark red can take some hits so
if it must take all of the hits never fall never fall never fall but if you must take all
of the hits falling can hack the guilt pretty damn well so you do as you please girl
because you are as dark red as i’ve ever seen and this scene is as much yours
as you want it to be




[there’s no soul for you to save]

i told my children there’s no soul for you to save there are only parents of parents
of parents and all of us have failed to some degree and you will fail to some
degree and isn’t it lovely that i have no more expectations for you than to live this
one life as a basket for the fantastical as a holding place for the ecstatic and the
rest of it is fucking nonsense and if that doesn’t free you up to feel anything about
the world then i don’t know what will

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[the whiskey is in the apple]

i told my son the whiskey is in the apple and you should eat the apple but
remember to spit out the seeds because i became an orchard and you were born
to become a forest but your mother is a garden so you should choose carefully
what you tuck inside your cheeks inside your belly inside your heart and if it ever
feels like you’re drowning that’s because you’re drowning so spit the seeds spit
the water out wrap the skins around your torso and become something else most
of our family has only ever been one thing at a time and you you you could be
more than that

Bio: Darren C. Demaree is the author of six poetry collections, most recently “Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly” (2016, 8th House Publishing).  His seventh collection “Two Towns Over” was recently selected the winner of the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and is due out March 2018.  He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry.  He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

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