The stars are apples.
The river is a hammer.

I have lived awhile now
knowing that those papers

Emily had me sign tell me
what to do when she dies

& when I ate those papers,
swallowed them whole,

shit them out into pipes
that will never allow them

to be used to grow anything,
she reminded me that we saved

them in the damn cloud
& I cannot swallow ones

& zeros. God dammit.
Computer, did you know

all that memory you have
is being used for something less

than poetry? Forget death
for me. I told you Emily

is the bloom. I’m the bones
buried in her best black.

How could you keep her mortal
amidst my one everything?

The stars are apples.
The river is a hammer.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of eighteen poetry collections, most recently “the luxury”, (Glass Lyre, January 2023). 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.