[i wake to my own]
i told my son i wake to my own world and he is the light of spring to me and when he realizes that he wakes up to his own world he should make sure he finds a source of light that isn’t part of the firmament ‘cause hell son those comet all the time into our oceans and then what then what then what so know son know that you have the energy of the universe in you but we are simple enough to need the light some of the time and there will come a point where he sees only the darkness in our name
[the best wounds]
i told my daughter the best wounds can all be salved by judy blume but if there’s ever an every minute of every day sort of gaping she should hold on to me or crush my likeness into a poultice and cover herself in whatever nutrients there are in thoughts of a father and even though i know that would all follow her mother’s attempts and her grandmother’s attempts and her other grandmother’s attempts and her other grandmother’s attempts i don’t mind at all being the last line of healing for her
Darren C. Demaree‘s poems have published in Diode, Meridian, New Letters, Diagram, the Colorado Review, and other magazines. He is the author of six poetry collections, most recently, Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly (2016, 8th House Publishing). His seventh and prize-winning collection, Two Towns Over, is scheduled to be released in March of 2018. Demaree is also Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry, and is currently living in Columbus,Ohio, with his wife and children.