[the roots have risen up away from the trunk]

i told my children the roots have risen up away from the trunk and like your brain seeps the tree’s structure seeps as well and searches and keeps searching even in the spring because the nourishment doesn’t come from the good black or the tall blue visiting it comes from growing until you bump your head on the ceiling until you are a giant in your own world and that will be the first part of your lives the second the third the fourth and the fifth will be learning how important it is to be small enough to disappear when you need to lower yourself into a world that will not require your burial

[all of the costumes]

i told my son all of the costumes you want to wear are fine with me i don’t even care if you become the characters you dress as and i don’t care that you change your clothes six times a day you don’t have to escape the lion if you’re dressed as a lion you don’t have to rely on batman if you are batman hell i was a whiskey bottle for twelve years you should have seen how drunk i was able to stay with a full liter of canadian club in my person son i think i like your way better at least your way won’t cut up your mother if everything shatters in this house again

Darren C. Demaree is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly (2016, 8th House Publishing). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Featured image: Roots by Samantha Celera. CC license.