GOT THERE: AN INDEFINITE SERIES OF RIVERS ENDING AT OUR FEET

Yes, the world is all old, tight knots

& the world is run by knot-makers

& rope-titans, determined to choke us

just enough that we can feel the real

pleasure of gifts we were already given.

Unwrap this world we’ve kept barely

breathing! Those fuckers changed rain.

They had only one idea, that our bodies

are separate, so they tried to bury us apart.

Pick a body of water. Follow it through

the county, into the city, past the suburbs

& into the field parties, ignore retention

ponds, breathe where no one watches

you breathe. You’ll still feel the twine

tighten, but you’ll be so close to me then.

Be at the end of all tethers with me.

GOT THERE: A COMMON DEFINITION OF BEAUTY

The world is seven

questions asked

seven different ways

& an overexcited

silence that builds

towards earthquake

or religion or a crop

raised to be burned

by our confusion.

Let not knowing

be the gentle wave

it can be. Give apples

to a young hunger.

Look back. Call it

looking forward.

Be simple with me.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-one poetry collections, most recently in defense of the goat as it continues to wander towards the certain doom of the cliff ( April Gloaming, 2024).  He is the recipient of a Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise 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 is currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.