Three poems by Darren Demaree

Got There: Real Color

I have heard the refrain of goals
& endings & burials of the burst
& I’ve gazed upon the great works
that have never ended hunger,
that have never taken away oxygen
from the rich & warring minority
& I must ask, is all this gray area
a white compromise? If it can’t be
the sun, then we must set the fires.

I am not opposed to an ugly ending.
I’m outraged by anyone that claims
a new beginning. It’s all happened.
It’s all still happening. The fight
is to know it all, to wake up known
& knowing, to hue the witness.

Be early in the morning with me.

 

 

Got There: It Would Be Better if I Had No Place to Hide

The nature of light is misleading. It’s all fire,
flame or no. The smoky walls are unworried
& are conditional. The body suffers. Ugly is
an advertisement for art to do better
with the smell of things. Beauty is a promise
that things will never get better. I tell two lies
& a purple silk appears. The curtains are cute.
Upgather the gradient of this world
with a story of the divine. Lock the ending?

The cement path is a trap. I am on the lines.
I’m on each side of the lines. Clearly,
you’re distracted by the lights. I want to find
something other than myself, but all these
questions are about me. Everything modern
hides. The custodians can only sterilize.

Be something better reaching back with me.

 

 

Got There – Peace or Quiet

Vanishing is its own genre.
The idea of the mark being
on the body, on attempting
to leave the body but still
be called flesh is an owl
in the morning hunting frost.
The beauty comes from feeling
& the loss of feeling. The rush
of a needless flight matters.

Yes, I want the same as you.
I want my name to be said
out loud, but I have no interest
in being there when it’s said.
If you are brave enough to say
I wrote this poem, thank you.

Be what happened last with me.

 

Darren Demaree’s poems have appeared, or are scheduled to appear in numerous magazines/journals, including Hotel Amerika, Diode, North American Review, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review. He is the author of twenty-two poetry collections, most recently ‘blue and blue and blue’ (July 2024, Fernwood Press). He is the Editor in Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living and writing in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.