Darren Demaree

EMILY AS I PREPARE THE MEAL-KIT HOISIN PORK SLOPPY JOES

I want the painkillers our dog is taking.
I want a new soul out of nothing.
Emily says

this meal comes with potato buns.
I want potato buns.
I want days that are more than just was.

I want the clutching of my children
during a pandemic to mean I love them
enough to stay sober.

I want a lung to stay a lung.
I want the mosquitos that track me
from the creek bed to take the blood they need.

I want the words I use
to be more than just coffin slang. I want a meal
to once again be more than a eulogy of sorts.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently “a child walks in the dark”, (Harbor Editions, November 2021). He is the recipient of a 2018 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 living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.