Darren Demaree – Two Poems

“You Try The Spirit By The Spirit”

– J.W. Alexander

A separation
is a change
in the light

matter. Fusion
is a dark matter.
Stitches are

a human need
to heal with
a thread’s kiss.

How we move
after the result
is the enigma.

“Usually When He Was With A Woman Awhile. He Didn’t Want Her No More.”

– S.R. Crain

Unless you’re a good man,
at a certain point, your life
will be figuring out exactly

what it is that you can get
away with. If you’re Sam Cooke
& the infinite is possible

you might declare yourself
Rome or thirteen moons
& nature will just have to

deal with your epic tides.
If you live life like that for long,
there will be a list of causalities

& a small celebration
in the villages you’ve destroyed
when it’s your turn to drown.

Author’s Statement on Beauty

My son spilled grape pop at dinner tonight. As he is four, and full of wonder I let him watch the purple suds sneak out of the glass bottle for a moment before I rushed to get the paper towels. He was enthralled with the smell that took over the room, with the way it appeared at first to soak into the table, and with the subtle sound it still made before I cleaned it up. As I soaped it up, cleaned it, dried it, and repositioned out plates to continue eating, he said, “That was so cool.” It strikes me that I write poetry the same way my four-year-old boy drinks grape pop. I love the taste of it, the mess of it, the attempt to control it, and once it’s done I love to talk about it all happened. I have other, bigger picture thoughts on poetry, but right now I’m enjoying the delightfulness of this idea.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of five poetry collections, most recently The Nineteen Steps Between Us (2016, After the Pause Press). 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.