[a single creature]
i told my children a single creature can scream but it takes a chorus to gather the wolves to scent the mountain ridge to make the branches thread enough to canopy the revolution so they should make plenty of friends that want to find nature to be with nature and then attack every wall that confronts nature
[the cold blue moon]
i told my daughter the cold blue moon could hold her if she wanted it to but since we are already dragging the past behind us it would be better if she left the future alone for a little while if she watched the horses at the county fair without trying to ride one of them if she reached up into the sky to tease her own reflection in the clouds leave the depressions in the mood depressed because even though she is probably the answer to every query the moon has yet to ask for her and i’d like her to remain seven and unimportant to the firmament a little bit longer
[what i like to hide]
i told my son what i like to hide are the reasons i have to hide so many things from him and he told me he thought that was stupid and because he was right i let him say it four times in a row before i moved him towards counting to one hundred by fives something he loves to do and while he did this i thought about how one day he will wake up and be able to frame me completely so i went ahead and told him i was an alcoholic and he just kept on counting to one hundred by fives and i joined him until we got to ninety and then i let him finish things all by himself
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.