Ode to the Corner of the Drug House Down the Gravel Road Off the Two-Lane Highway #45

 

We are not the branches.

We are in the branches

& all we talk about

 

are the roots.  This would

make a great amount

of sense, but this is the ocean

 

& this crew couldn’t swim

their way out of a slip

& slide.  We are the opposite

 

of the fruit of time.

We are willing to be camouflage

& funeral for the state of Ohio.

 

These are the conversations

we’ve had in the last five

minutes.  This is our garden.

 

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of six poetry collections, most recently “Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly” (2016, 8th House Publishing). His seventh 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.