Darren Demaree
with clean hunting boots
i don’t hunt
but my best
friend loves guns
& it was
a nice gift
these green boots
so after
the dripping
sky relents
i drag them
through puddles
to thank him
with complications
certified
rock-true push
across all
ridges i
have been taught
to ignore
the tides to
love drowning
as much as
i love shells
held in palms
sing silt sing
Darren C. Demaree is the author of fourteen poetry collections, most recently Unfinished Murder Ballads (October 2020, Backlash Press). He is the recipient of the 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.