Creek Bed Meditations #8

By: Darren C. Demaree

The flowers come

& I try to whisper,

even if I’m too old

for that kind of kiss,

I try whisper to them

to fill my body

with a new season,

something blue-green

that will cling to sun-

light even half-buried.

I’m enough of burden

on this world to get

no real answer.

It’s calming. Nothing

is ever whole. The bloom

breaks us into pieces.

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-four poetry collections, most recently “Now Flourish Northern Cardinal”, (Small Harbor Publishing, November 2025). He is the recipient of a Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, 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 currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.