EMILY AS WE SCARE THE BIRDS

 

We are the un-

knowability of the wind.

Our song terrorizes

 

the possibility of simple

love in simple trees

with simple nests.

 

This is why

our children can’t fly.

They’re lovely,

but they exist

in a smooth place

away from our efforts.

 

No.  Our children see

& hear everything.  They

know what we are

 

& why we cling

to each other.  

They don’t fly

 

away because they

love us anyway.

They are scared only

 

of what we are not.

 

EMILY AS I PLAY THE SONG HALLELUJAH BACKWARDS

 

Hello confusion, ask

all of your questions

& if you get any answers

 

from me they will be

whole, they will be nonsense,

they will be a wordless

 

feeling.  I had no intention

of making sense when

I started asking the world

 

why some sleep to never wake

& why some wake to never

sleep.  I suppose

 

I just got tired of loving

the same song over

& over again.  I don’t want

 

to love anyone other

than Emily.  I just like

to call her different names

 

when I feel lonely

& since I quit drinking

I’ve been alone all the time.

EMILY AS A TUNING FORK

 

The stone never expects

anything.  There is music in this world!

I don’t care what it sounds like.

 

It could all be practice.  It could

never stop being a rehearsal.

I just like having her around

 

while I try to & of & with & around

the stones as they find out about her.

Neither of us sings, but the vibration

 

makes us feel our voices

have shed the moss of the world

& been chucked into a real sea.

 

After that, so simply, we exist

& we revisit that existence whenever

we need ignore the shallow silence.

 

Darren C. Demaree is the author of seven poetry collections, most recently “A Fire Without Light” (2017, Nixes Mate Books).  His eighth 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.
Follow him on Twitter at @d_c_demaree and visit www.darrencdemaree.com to learn more.