BY DARREN C. DEMAREE
Let’s say the death threats
are not written
by cowards this time
& Ohio has finally decided
to return me
to the Kokosing. How much
lightning will it take
for the rest of the country
to see she is the most beautiful
widow? A sunflower
is always a sunflower.
My body’s final coloring
won’t change the fact
that at midnight you can see
Emily amidst any storm.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently “a child walks in the dark”, (Harbor Editions, December 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.