i ain’t the only inventive fucker here
that can close his eyes
& take the world
as a creature feasting on the tethers
between man
& good lord america is on fire
& it is okay if we let it burn
for a while if we let the smoke
& fog of early winter
act as cover for the violence
we must allow to sleep inside of us
until the bathtub water rises
to slosh against our gossip books
& release & release
& release us into the streets
again again again
i am afraid that i have lifted bodies
only to put the bodies back down
i guess we’ll know when the snow
melts when we unlock a window
when we pelt oranges
against the rich people’s sedans
& all they can do is take it
our first heavy spring
that has ever done anything at all
the first spring
where i refuse to just dream of
Darren C. Demaree is the author of fifteen poetry collections, most recently Burning It Down (8th House Publishing 2020). He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louis Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the editor-in-chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the managing editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He currently lives in Columbus, OH with his wife and children.
Image: “Quarantine” by Sasha Van Cott
Pine Hills Review 