Friday, October 26, 2012

New Poetry by Robert Demaree










RENTAL PROPERTY

An old apartment,
In someone or other’s mews:
Years of cooked vegetables
Linger in darkened grout.
Screwing a curtain rod
Into soft wood:
Too many people
Have already lived here


- Robert Demaree 2012



IN THE CHAPEL

1.
A funeral today at Golden Pines,
The chapel full,
Amber afternoon light across
Crimson-cushioned pews.
The elderly receive familiar texts,
Celebrate a life, mourn a loss.
We knew almost everyone there,
Which was part of why I wept.

2.
A year later, at 92, he wed again,
Perhaps as she had planned,
His bride a widower’s widow:
To affirm a way of living,
To affirm the act of living.


- Robert Demaree 2012



CARRIERS

Morning walk at Golden Pines:
Late February sky deep blue
Through trees for now still leafless
But about to change their minds.
A moving van packs up the contents of a cottage,
Fewer since her husband died,
And takes them to Assisted Living,
As if there were some other kind.
Across the pond, the hink and honk of geese,
Heading north, programmed to care for their own.
An ambulance pulls slowly away
From the Health Care Building,
Siren, blue lights turned off.


- Robert Demaree 2012

“Carriers” first appeared in Tipton Poetry Journal Winter 2009.



Robert Demaree is the author of four collections of poems, including Fathers and Teachers (2007) and Mileposts (2009), both published by Beech River Books. The winner of the 2007 Conway, N.H., Library Poetry Award, he is a retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire in the eastern U.S. He has had over 600 poems published or accepted by 125 periodicals in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K., including Cold Mountain Review, Red Wheelbarrow, miller’s pond, Bolts of Silk, Louisville Review and Paris/Atlantic, and in four anthologies including the 2008 and 2010 editions of Poet’s Guide to New Hampshire and Celebrating Poets over 70.. For further information see http://www.demareepoetry.blogspot.com

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