in defense of the goat that continues to wander towards the certain doom of the cliff #18

Darren C. Demaree

 

sure reductionism is a threat to the last
half-century the discoverer of less would
stand in defiance of the good lord give me
the wealth-drowning i prefer there is a need
to count everything so that we ourselves might
be counted our survival broadened
into meaning the conservation efforts
focus on conserving humanity i tell you
it will be a different kind of okay if we don’t
survive but it will be okay think of the gods
without our idea of the gods making life
a half-prison what limits what limits what

 

 

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently a child walks in the dark (Harbor Editions, December 2021). 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.