POEM FOR KATIE, QUEEN OF OHIO #88

Speak to the cicada.

They have the violent

 

sounds we need

to coal the ridges

 

of Ohio, to set the fires

& watch the state run

 

away from complacency.

The rich will cover

 

their ears, Katie.

The rich will drop

 

their guard.  Take all

that you can.

 

 

 

POEM FOR KATIE, QUEEN OF OHIO #89

I have great hopes

that you will have

 

your mother’s dark

hair.  If you can be her

 

continuing, if you can

be her without

 

all of that goodness

you might just take

 

the unpretty state

of things here

 

& thrive amidst

your revolution.

 

POEM FOR KATIE, QUEEN OF OHIO #90

Dear young lady,

if anybody else

 

addresses you

in this way,

 

you should probably

take their property

 

first, then give

their lilies to the sky,

 

& then burn your name

in their field.

 

Fuck any minimizing

of your ecstatic.

 

Darren C. Demaree is the author of ten poetry collections, most recently “Lady, You Shot Me”, which was published by 8th House Publishing.  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 Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry.  He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.