It is rare that I take
the time to season
a chicken breast,

but it is important
that the chicken
be different

than the chicken
we ate last night.
The children ask

for it with both
of their hands.
Emily doesn’t eat

the chicken
& I can no longer
stand the damp

& dangerous meat.
Alas, they ask
for more chicken

& I make more chicken
because they cannot
live in my sleeves

forever. The world
is permanently masked
& I can’t tell them that

yet, so I season the bird.


Darren C. Demaree’s poems have appeared in numerous magazines/journals, including Hotel Amerika, Diode, North American Review, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review.

He is the author of fourteen poetry collections, most recently ‘Unfinished Murder Ballads’ (October 2020, Backlash Press). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry.

Darren currently lives and writes in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

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