layering

the children can’t help / but puff out their cheeks / when the first numb nose of fall / makes them feign to kiss the wind / back to back / like a promise to dying flowers / matters amidst the mulch / like our neighbors that layer plastic / over their bushes / might be able to save / us all / like the schools might suddenly open again / or bare faces might one day / be as beautiful as a masked face / can be when it carries / no autobiography of death / in a drop of spittle / like the men in my hometown / might stop threatening me / for reading poems / over the graves / of their children / because the president has said / i should be buried / for warning them / that all drugs are wolves / that all wolves / are death lobbyists / are bought by death / like our president / who has counted dead children / by the hundreds / as bricks in a wall / that will keep us / warm this winter / when no fabric will matter / when the layering / i have kept specifically / for my three children / will not matter at all / because the fires will be burning / the smell will be turning / our stomachs / all of the kissing will end / in a proper smack / of this world / rushing towards the boundaries / of existence / like small lips / wishing they did not have / to be asked / to frame the words / of a future / they don’t quite believe in

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of seventeen poetry collections, most recently “clawing at the grounded moon”, (April Gloaming, forthcoming in August 2022).  He is the recipient of an 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.