[the control of the bird]
i told my daughter the control of the bird is a soft balling of freedom thrown back into the air one more time and she should never once discount flight happening right in front of her because that could be the last time it happens and it’s a longshot that hollow bones will last much longer in a world that has bet heavy on the idea that it can trap the sun
[each bullet]
i told my children each bullet is a promise to at least one person that they will die in a puddle that they will be turned into the sky and the fireball that consumes it that each bullet is a solar flare that laps up whole families with each slight burst that each bullet can swallow the firmament whole
[the noise ripens]
i told my son the noise ripens in your gut all you have to do is open your mouth wide enough to birth the field that can become the crop that will lift your words high enough to have a chance to be stumpled upon by a party that is searching for the almost destruction of youth and willing to settle for the shape of the story you give them so good luck son because this next ohio is all yours
Darren C. Demaree is the author of six poetry collections, most recently “Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly” (2016, 8th House Publishing). 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.